ABSTRACT

Increasing competition from foreign manufacturers threatens the viability of textile producers in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to establish quantifiable measures by which the competitiveness of the U.S. textile industry may be judged. This provides a means by which the current competitive status of the U.S. textile industry may be compared to major foreign producers and will provide important tools for understanding and evaluating international competitiveness. Not surprisingly, the measures employed show the United States to be at a relative competitive disadvantage when compared to major international producers of cotton yarn such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey. However, the margin of this competitive disadvantage is shown to be relatively small. U.S. metrics of competition are trending towards price parity and are virtually equivalent with major competitors in terms of costs of production.