As Thanksgiving And Ski Season Arrive,
Vermont’s Skiers, Ski Visitors And Snow Sports Businesses
Won’t Be Caught With Their Ski Pants Down

 Leahy And Jeffords Win Extension
Of Quota Exemption For High-Quality Skiwear

WASHINGTON (Friday, Nov. 18) – With Thanksgiving and the traditional opening of the new ski season just around the corner, Vermont’s skiers, ski equipment distributors and retailers got a shot of good news this weekend as Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) announced success in their efforts to end permanently a problem-causing import quota on high-quality, synthetic ski pants from China. 

Leahy and Jeffords earlier this fall won an exemption from the quota through 2005, in a recent textile agreement with China.  The Vermont duo now has won a permanent extension through 2008, the life of the authority to impose quotas for these products under U.S. law.  In a letter to Leahy and Jeffords, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman informed Leahy and Jeffords of the Administration’s agreement to their request.  The victory will allow Vermont ski distributors and retailers to offer advanced, high-quality gear no longer made in the United States to skiers in and out of Vermont during this year’s busy ski season, and beyond.

“Let it snow -- we’re ready for a great season,” said Leahy.  “This is a victory for skiers, and it’s also a relief for our snow-sports industries.  Vermont firms that supply ski equipment can now stock their shelves without interruption.”

“I am pleased Vermont’s retailers will have an ample supply of ski pants, not just this year, but in the near future,” said Jeffords.  “This textile agreement will help ensure profitable and enjoyable winters that are so critical to Vermont’s economy and way of life.”

The Vermont senators led a bipartisan effort to convince Bush Administration trade negotiators to exempt ski pants from the U.S.-imposed quota on apparel and textile goods imported from China.  No domestic manufacturers currently produce this advanced skiwear, and Leahy and Jeffords had emphasized that the quota created substantial supply problems for the snow sports industry.  The quotas are designed to protect American firms from potentially unfair international competition, but the ski pants quota only served to hurt American ski gear distributors.  In October, the Committee on the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), a unit of the Commerce Department, responded to the senators’ efforts by announcing that ski pants will be exempt from the quota that applies to “man-made fiber trousers” through 2005.  The textile agreement extended the exemption through the next two years.  There is no authority for the import quota after 2008, making the exemption for ski pants now permanent, for all practical purposes.

Vermont’s ski supply venders like Bogner of America and Burton Snowboards immediately hailed the importance of the breakthrough in the business the exemption will bring to their venders.

“Bogner of America is extremely pleased with the agreement exempting man-made fiber ski pants from quota,” said Josh Noble, Bogner’s import/export administrator.  “With no domestic production of man-made fiber ski pants, it is crucial to our operations that we are able to freely import this product.  Bogner of America thanks Senator Leahy and Senator Jeffords for their efforts on our behalf.”

“Exempting man-made ski pants imported from China from quotas through 2008 will help the snowboarding market offer the products our consumers demand,” says John Lacy, director of men’s apparel at Burton Snowboards.  “The snow sports industry has built very strong relationships with manufacturers in China to meet the quality we require for our innovative products.  This is great news for our industry.

Leahy and Jeffords, who were joined by Sens. Judd Gregg (R- N.H.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in their efforts, first wrote to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in July raising concerns about the problems the quotas created for the U.S. ski industry, and Leahy and Jeffords also initiated another letter in September urging the exemption.

The textile agreement with China also does not limit the export of man-made fiber ski jackets, another staple of the industry, which bodes well for continued imports of those items.

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