The proposal would broaden US textile industrial policy beyond yarn and fabric production to include sorting, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling infrastructure.
American Circular Textiles has urged the Office of the US Trade Representative to include circular manufacturing in a proposed textile trade incentive programme linked to Section 301 forced-labour investigations. The group’s filing supports a wider coalition plan submitted by NCTO, AAFA, USFIA and the US Industrial Fabrics Institute, but argues that the programme should recognise recycled fibres, recovered textiles and secondary raw materials as part of trusted regional supply chains.
From trade enforcement to industrial design
USTR’s Section 301 process targets economies that, in Washington’s view, have failed to impose or effectively enforce prohibitions on goods made with forced labour. The agency has proposed additional duties of 10% or 12.5%, depending on each economy’s policy status, and a textile mechanism allowing some apparel and textile imports to enter at reduced Section 301 tariff rates.
The original industry proposal seeks to use tariff credits to encourage more sourcing of US-made yarns and fabrics and more apparel production in USMCA and CAFTA-DR countries. AMCIRC wants the same logic extended to circular inputs processed in the US, USMCA and CAFTA-DR region.
Circular inputs seek policy recognition
AMCIRC’s key recommendation is to count recovered textile materials, recycled textile materials and other secondary raw materials as qualifying regional inputs. It says this would support investment in textile recovery, sorting, repair and recycling, while reducing dependence on higher-risk sourcing regions.
The group also asks USTR to support responsible cross-border movement of recovered textiles, recycled fibres and secondary raw materials among trusted regional partners. Importantly, it argues that consumer-to-consumer resale of used goods should be treated differently from newly manufactured commercial imports, so enforcement does not damage legitimate resale activity.
Machinery and jobs enter the debate
A practical constraint is equipment. AMCIRC notes that scaling textile recycling requires specialised sorting and processing machinery, much of which is not yet manufactured domestically. It therefore wants appropriate treatment for imported recycling equipment while US capacity develops.
Its employment analysis estimates that diverting textiles from US landfills for reuse alone could support 9,600 jobs at a 10% diversion rate and about 48,000 jobs at a 50% diversion rate, before adding repair, sorting, recycling and remanufacturing jobs.
The next test is whether USTR treats circular textiles as peripheral sustainability activity or as strategic manufacturing infrastructure. If accepted, the proposal could make circularity part of US trade competitiveness, not just waste policy.
