Final phase of trade pact may doom New Jersey textile industry.

Publication: The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Record

Byline: Hugh R. Morley

Nov. 14--After decades of decline, the once vibrant textile industry that transformed North Jersey into an industrial powerhouse is facing what leaders say could be its death knell.

On Jan. 1, the United States and many other countries will remove the last remaining import "quotas" protecting their textile and garment industries by limiting the flow of competing products across their borders.

That will allow an unlimited number of wool, yarn, clothing, sheets and other fabric items -- most made by workers earning a fraction of American wages -- into the United States, often to big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Union and business leaders fear that what's left of the national textile and garment industry will be devastated.

"It will reduce [the industry] to a shell of its former self," said Robert Dupree, vice president of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, a Washington-based trade group that estimates that the industries and support sectors employ about 1 million people.

"We could be looking at the loss of 600,000 or more textiles and apparel jobs," he said.

One of Paterson's last textile manufacturers said the quota removal will likely prompt even more customers to buy goods abroad.

The shift, said Victor Terraglia, owner of Lisa Mills, could spell the end for his company, a weaver and...

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