China conducting 'no-holds-barred assault' on U.S. textile industry
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 27, 2005
I was interested to read Susan M. Andrews' story (Feb. 14, page 1) about Messe Frankfurt going to Las Vegas. Of course they have a mixed track record. Their Heimtex of the Americas show was a yawn to most folks, and Heimtextil Frankfurt, the mother of all shows, has become an anathema to the U.S. upholstery folks.
Of even more interest to me is the change of the Showtime dates to June and December (Feb. 7, page 2), as well as the change of the International Textile Market Assn. from a U.S. organization that invites international companies to attend, to an organization that is run by those invitees and similar firms.
I note that the new head of ITMA is Jack Cobb of American Decorative Fabrics, a Chinese company....
The change of dates of Showtime directly interferes with the pre-Showtime visits to the New York showrooms of mills such as Weave Corp., Wearbest Sil-Tex Mills and Sunbury Textile Mills, and some of the southern U.S. mills such as Joan and Valdese Weavers, making customers choose between these very important visits at which U.S. mills have traditionally worked on special items with customers for the upcoming furniture markets, and Showtime.
The U.S. mills are very unhappy about this and believe that it's an intentional step to undercut the business of American mills by the Chinese and those converters that are foreign-based.
Put this together with the alleged wholesale copying of patterns by (certain) Chinese companies ... and we begin to get a picture of a no-holds-barred assault on the American industry using every possible means, legal and otherwise.
Anyone who thought this would be a fair fight should now be disabused of that notion. Chinese vendors have bought American industry veterans to help them conduct their slash-and-burn offensive to dominate the U.S. market.
In my own view, these individuals should be ashamed of themselves, but I understand that the smell of money is very seductive, no matter how much its source may stink.
Roger Berkley, president of Weave Corp., chairman of the Upholstery, Fabrics Committee of the National Textile Assn.
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Letter to the editor
Mar 27, 2005
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