GA SR768

Georgia Senate expresses support for maintaining the CAFTA-DR yarn forward rule of origin, which requires textiles and apparel to use yarn produced within CAFTA-DR member countries to qualify for preferential trade treatment

Georgia ranks second nationally in cotton production, with 55 counties producing 2.74 million bales valued at approximately $900 million in 2019, and the state's 930 cotton and textile establishments provide an estimated $2.3 billion in annual wages

Georgia leads the nation in textile employment with over 45,000 workers, supporting an additional 135,000 jobs statewide; the CAFTA-DR region supports $12.6 billion in annual two-way trade and 1.2 million direct jobs

Warns that weakening the yarn forward rule would replace Georgia textiles with Chinese and other low-cost Asian textiles in the Western Hemisphere supply chain, undermining investment and employment in the state

Calls for vigorous action to prevent Chinese and other low-cost Asian producers from displacing Georgia textiles, citing China's unfair trade practices and forced labor concerns linked to cotton production in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region