October 1: ... In just the last few weeks, he’s struck a last-minute deal with Canada and Mexico, signed a trade agreement with South Korea and convinced Japan to begin bilateral economic negotiations. The North American accord also includes provisions seemingly aimed at keeping Chinese products out of the region. (Source: Bloomberg)

October 1: ... American Apparel & Footwear Association President and CEO Rick Helfenbein added that it was reviewing the [United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement] text in detail with its members and determining the impact it will have on the highly integrated North American apparel, footwear and textile supply chain. (Source: Women's Wear Daily - login required) 

September 26: ... As the Administration continues to accelerate taxes upon our supply chains (in response to cheating by others), Congress has failed to intervene. This means that it is up to us to create real, positive change for American businesses, American consumers, and American workers. (Source: Sourcing Journal, op-ed by AAFA's Rick Helfenbein - article unlocked)

October issue: If you ask a thousand different people what sustainability means to them, you will get a thousand different answers. The issue for the apparel and footwear industry is that each of these thousand people is a current or potential customer, each looking at what your company does on sustainability (based on their own definition). (Source: Fashion Mannuscript, op-ed by AAFA's Nate Herman)

September 28: Almost a year after the first prototypes of the Army’s prospective new dress uniform made their public debut, the Army is days away from making a final decision on whether to mass produce and field the iconic throwback. (Source: Army Times)

September 26: ... For a country that has faced almost a decade of escalating industry embargoes against its cotton exports, these should be exciting times. Rights groups warn, however, against complacency and say more needs to be done rooting out forced labor before Uzbek cotton’s reputation is fully sanitized. (Source: eurasianet)

October 1: ... "Amazon has been a leader of, and has made valuable contributions to, the future of retail," AAFA said in a statement. "We believe Amazon can, and should, be a leader in the fight against counterfeits." (Source: CNBC)

September 28: ... Amazon’s market dominance gives it the power to influence the future of retail. How it handles counterfeiters could shape the behavior of the entire industry, experts say. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

September 28: Roughly 20% of people recently surveyed said they have bought counterfeit footwear online, and 37% of consumers are indifferent to the problem ... Among those, 48% started searching for genuine branded product, while 9% were actually looking for counterfeit products, and 35% of those purchasing fake footwear were not aware of it at the time. (Source: Retail Dive)

Notorious Markets submission to USTR: On October 1, AAFA submitted annual comments to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) as part of USTR’s 2018 Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets, which identifies foreign physical and online marketplaces that engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting. This is an essential part of the hard work that AAFA conducts to defend and protect American intellectual property. Among other ecommerce platforms and physical marketplaces, AAFA identified amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), amazon.ca (Canada), and amazon.de (Germany) in the submission. Our specific concerns are expressed in yesterday’s submission and our press statement.

NAFTA renegotiated and re-named: On Sunday, September 30, the Trump administration announced a deal with Canada to complete a trilateral update of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). AAFA has provided a detailed assessment to the AAFA Government Relations Committee. To learn more about committee access, contact AAFA’s Steve Lamar.

AAFA supports exclusion process for China Tariffs: On September 26, AAFA joined a letter with dozens of other associations, asking USTR to institute an exclusion process for the $200 billion list of U.S. imports from China currently being charged a punitive 10% tariff.