Americans think they are too good to make clothes
Aww that is not fair..
The Carolinas were big into textiles AND assembly wel into the 80s. Many well known and respected Union label brands were outsourced when the textiles mills moved out of country. Many were brands that were for Older Dept stores. But Land & Sea, Tanner , Levi's, Wrangler (which I belive is in Poland ;p now )
1 in 10 manufaturing jobs were in clothing assembly until mid 80s. American brands were usually union lables so cost was often 3x more than say asian made before markup. And sweatshops for clothing assemby were becoming more common during the phase over to outsourcing. Once the tariffs and restrictions were removed from these corporations about operating overseas asn "importing" brand product. Especially private label"
Various trade liberalization initiatives and import restrictions on textiles and apparel have defined U.S. foreign policy in the industry over the past several decades. In 1974 and four times after that, some 45 signatories—including eight developed countries and dozens of developing ones—signed a pact called the Multi Fiber Arrangement, which established restrictions and quotas for the import of textiles and goods from developing countries into developed ones. This 30-year buffer expired in 2004. In 2005, apparel imports from China increased by almost 100 percent. And the biggest rapid decline was DIRECTLY thanks to NAFTA.
Walmart coaxed big textile giants like Cannon do move overseas for cheaper production.
The Free trade agreement wil take the last of local cotton and textile overseas. I wonder what links there are left nowdays. Plenty prolly.
*sigh* PHX I want to go home to Payson soooooo bad. I hate humidity!