The President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has welcomed the new proposal by the U.S. Government to eliminate all textile, apparel, and nonrubber footwear tariff and non-tariff barriers worldwide within ten years.

"Essentially, the United States is proposing to launch a Planet Earth Free Trade Agreement," said Kevin M. Burke. "The scope and reciprocal nature of this initiative are unprecedented. It is long overdue."

The U.S. proposal calls for a worldwide, multi-phased elimination of duties on all non-agricultural tariffs between 2005 and 2015 as part of the current round of multilateral trade talks. By 2010, many current duties would be eliminated entirely while all others, regardless of their current levels, would be reduced to a level no greater than 8 percent. Over the following five years, all remaining tariffs would be eliminated.

Concurrent with the tariff reduction and elimination initiative would be a programme to eliminate remaining non-tariff measures, such as quotas and reference pricing schemes, that keep many U.S. branded goods out of key developed and developing country markets.