ITC announces AGOA Denim Fabric determination

Tag : Fabric Trade
ITC announces AGOA Denim Fabric determination July 11, 2008 (USA)
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC or Commission)announced its determination in connection with its investigationDenim Fabric: Use in AGOA Countries During Fiscal Year 2007, Inv.No. AGOA-002. The determination is required under amendments to theAfrican Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that the President signedinto law in December 2006.

All six Commissioners determined that 21,120,000 square meterequivalents (SMEs) of qualifying denim fabric produced inbeneficiary Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries was used in lesserdeveloped beneficiary (LDB) SSA countries to produce apparelexported to the United States that received preferential treatmentunder the AGOA during fiscal year (FY) 2007.

When it passed the amendments to the AGOA, the Congress deemed suchdenim fabric to be available in the amount of 30 million SMEsduring FY 2007 (October 1, 2006 - September 30, 2007). Under thestatute, the Commission must add the 8,880,000 SME differencebetween the amount of denim fabric deemed to be available for FY2007 and the amount found to have been used during FY 2007 to theamount of regional SSA denim fabric that the Commission determinedwill be available during fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007, toSeptember 30, 2008) for use in LDB SSA countries in the productionof denim apparel receiving U.S. duty free treatment. In September2007, the Commission found that the amount available for FY 2008will be 21,303,613 SMEs.

The AGOA statute sets forth circumstances when the President may ormust remove duty-free treatment for apparel made from third-countryfabric when regional fabric is found to be available to make theapparel, but is not used for such production. The Commission'sdeterminations are made in the context of a statutory provisionthat allows apparel made in LDB SSA countries from third-countryfabric to enter the United States duty free.

The Commission's public report, Denim Fabric: Use in AGOA CountriesDuring Fiscal Year 2007 (Inv. No. AGOA-002, USITC Publication 4021,July 2008) will contain the views of the Commission and informationdeveloped during the investigation.

The report will be available by July 11, 2008, and will be postedon the ITC web site.