2-For-1 Textile Program For The Dominican Republic

The United States House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 6560, which establishes a 2-for-1 textile and apparel program for the Dominican Republic. The premise of this program allows textile producers, when they purchase U.S. fabric for apparel production in the Dominican Republic, to receive a credit which allows them to ship eligible apparel, containing fabric sourced from a third-country that ordinarily would not receive duty-free treatment, from the Dominican Republic to the United States duty-free. House Member Jim McCrery (R-LA) had this to say about the bill, “This important expansion of the U.S.-CAFTA-DR fair trade agreement, fully supported by the U.S. textile industry, is an opportunity to expand U.S. manufactured exports to the region and demonstrates how these agreements can benefit U.S. workers… This legislation will provide another opportunity to grow U.S. textile exports and add to the U.S. trade surplus with the CAFTA-DR region.” The bill is now in the Senate, where it has been referred to the Committee on Finance.