The renowned Garment District in New York City is preparing for the effects of President Trump’s slew of tariffs that are starting to affect the clothing industry.
The tariffs may cause serious difficulties for Lyn and Lisa Alessi, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alessi International, a local fabric importer that represents mills in Asia and Europe. Their company collaborates with foreign partners to manufacture fabrics for luxury apparel brands.
“I have all my customers putting on the brakes, asking, ‘What are we going to do? How are we going to handle this? Where can we move production to?'” asked Lyn Alessi, who started selling high-end textiles in 1989.
97% of the clothing and footwear sold in the United States is imported, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. According to the World Bank, the majority of these goods are imported from China, India, and Vietnam.
On Thursday, the Trump administration said that imports from Vietnam and India would be subject to tariffs of 46% and 27%, respectively, while certain Chinese items would be subject to so-called “reciprocal tariffs” of up to 145%. To give more time for trade negotiations, Mr. Trump halted tariffs on the majority of nations for ninety days, but the tariffs on China are still in effect.
With Mr. Trump promoting the policies as a means of boosting domestic manufacturing, the wave of new U.S. tariffs has increased import taxes to their highest level in almost a century.
According to the Alessi sisters, this new import tax will affect almost every facet of clothing manufacturing, raising prices for both the company and customers. They believe this will cause consumers to look for other apparel options.
“A Veronica Beard jacket was $800. Now it’s going to be $1,000. And that just takes it out of the market. The secondhand market is going to thrive,” Alessi stated.
Located next door to Alessi International is Apparel Production, a manufacturing company that was established in 1948 and has weathered the ups and downs of the business.
Co-owned by Karen and Teddy Sadaka, the company collaborates with Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Kenneth Cole, although the majority of its factories have closed as a result of garment jobs being outsourced.
“We had factories in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky,” Karen Sadaka stated. “It wasn’t a problem. Today, they’re all out of business.”
The average age of employees at Apparel Production is currently 50, and it will probably be difficult to fill those positions when they retire.
Although Sadaka acknowledged that it is too soon to say if Mr. Trump’s tariffs will increase domestic production, she expressed concern that the change “is too much, too fast.”
Source: CBS News
