[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 160 (Friday, October 30, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S10962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SPECTER (for himself, Mr. Burr, Mr. Casey, and Mrs. 
        Hagan):
  S. 2532. A bill to extend the temporary duty suspensions on certain 
cotton shirting fabrics, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, today I seek recognition to introduce 
legislation entitled the Cotton Shirt Industry Tariff Relief and 
Promotion Act. This legislation will strengthen our domestic dress 
shirt manufacturers and the pima cotton growers. My bill extends a 
technical correction that levels the playing field by correcting an 
anomaly from previous trade agreements that has unfairly advantaged 
foreign producers and sent hundreds of jobs offshore.
  This legislation extends the reduction of duties levied on cotton 
shirting fabric that is not made in the United States. U.S. law 
recognizes this lack of fabric availability and has granted special 
favorable trade concessions to manufacturers in Canada, Mexico, the 
Caribbean, the Andean region, and Africa. The U.S. allowed shirts to 
enter this country duty-free from many other countries, while failing 
to reduce tariffs on those manufacturers that stayed in the U.S. and 
were forced to compete on these uneven terms. My bill extends the 
correction of this inequity.
  This legislation also recognizes the need to promote the U.S. 
shirting manufacturing and textiles sectors, and does so through the 
extension of a Cotton Competitiveness grant program, which is funded 
through a portion of previously collected duties.
  Our country has experienced an enormous loss of jobs in the 
manufacturing sector. It is critical that our domestic manufacturers 
are able to compete on a level playing field. My legislation is a 
concrete step that this Congress can take to reduce the hemorrhaging of 
U.S. manufacturing jobs.
  One group of beneficiaries of this legislation is a Gitman Brothers 
factory in Ashland, PA. The Ashland Shirt and Pajama factory was built 
in 1948 and employs 132 workers. This factory in the Lehigh Valley 
turns out world class shirts with such labels as Saks Fifth Avenue that 
are shipped across the U.S. Their shirts are made of pima cotton that 
is grown in the Southwestern U.S., but spun into fabric only by special 
mills in Western Europe. Gitman must compete against Canadian shirt 
companies that import the same fabric tariff-free and who can then ship 
their shirts into the U.S. tariff-free under NAFTA. These workers and 
their families deserve trade laws that do not chase their jobs 
offshore.
  This legislation enjoys the support of the domestic shirting 
industry, UNITE, and the Pima cotton association. I offer this 
legislation on behalf of the men and women of the Gitman factory in 
Ashland, the domestic dress shirting industry, and the pima cotton 
growers, so that for them, free trade will indeed be fair trade as 
well.
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