Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement made available

The United States recently concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement with 11 other Pacific rim nations including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Industrial Fabrics Association International’s United States Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI) and Narrow Fabrics Institute (NFI) advocated for a yarn-forward rule of origin and extended duty phaseouts of U.S. duties on import sensitive products.

The final TPP agreement utilizes a yarn-forward rule for the vast majority of textile and apparel products. Most tariff lines critical to U.S. production will receive an extended phase-out period of 10 or more years. All U.S. exports of technical textiles to Japan will be duty free upon implementation.

The full text of the agreement is now publicly available.