News reports say that Senate and House conferees late on Thursday, 13 April broke their deadlock and reached an agreement in principle on the major textile provisions of bills to grant NAFTA-parity provisions to sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. The Washington Post released the story in their online edition on Friday, 14 April (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17920-2000Apr14.html) Congressional reports say that the staff still needs to work out the details over the Easter Week recess, but the bill could be approved as early as May. Caribbean Basin Initiative countries would be permitted to ship knit apparel made with regional fabric up to 250 million square meters equivalent. A separate cap in addition to that for knit apparel would apply for t-shirts made with regional fabric, sources told "Inside US Trade" publication. In an article published by the Wall Street Journal, US Ambassador in the DR, Charles Manatt argued that passing the bill meant good business for both the US and the DR. Manatt wrote: "Last year the U.S. and the CBI region traded goods worth nearly $40 billion. That figure is sure to rise under the enhanced CBI legislation,which would give the Caribbean countries access to the U.S. apparel market similar to that Mexico and Canada already enjoy through the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Indeed, the American Apparel Manufacturers Association has endorsed this bill. One reason is that 85% of clothing manufactured in the Dominican Republic is made with U.S.-produced textiles. Without CBI, apparel production would inexorably shift to Asian factories, which would not use any U.S. textiles. On balance, then, passing CBI would likely save U.S. jobs — especially since it would create more markets for U.S. goods. (In the Dominican Republic, 60% of all consumer goods sold are made in the U.S.)
