Effective Monday, April 1, 2013, the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), the National
Textile Association (NTA) and the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) have
formally merged into one broad organization with the aim of strengthening the U.S. textile
industry’s voice in dealings with federal policy makers.
The merged organization, which comprises 149 member textile companies and suppliers, will
operate under the NCTO banner, with NCTO president Cass Johnson continuing in that role, and will
be housed at NCTO’s current Washington location and will retain NCTO’s website: ncto.org. The
governing structure will include a Board of Directors and four internal councils based on the
production chain, including the Fiber Council, Yarn Council, Fabric & Home Products
Manufacturers Council, and Industry Support Council.
NCTO notes the following benefits will result from the merger of the three organizations:
- the capability to present a united front to Congressional members and Executive Branch agencies
on critical policy issues, particularly the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade
agreement negotiations; - a more focused opportunity to properly brand the U.S. textile industry as an integral component
of America’s 21st-century economy by better highlighting its substantial economic contribution,
particularly in the area of employment, its high-tech products, its cutting edge manufacturing
processes, and its status as a globally competitive exporter; - the expansion of industry focus to more fully cover an array of critical issues beyond those
that involve trade, to include issues such as regulatory and government contracting matters; - increased staffing to do more lobbying, public relations and grassroots activity; and
- a better capability to identify and support major governmental customer needs such as those of
the U.S. military.
Additional benefits include improved structural efficiency of textile industry
representation owing to the consolidation and maximization of each organization’s strengths;
improved utilization of financial resources owing to one unified effort rather than separate
duplicate efforts; and an improved system to recruit new members among U.S. textile companies that
are not currently associated with any textile trade group.
“This is an important step for the U.S. textile industry and the hundreds of thousands of
workers we employ,” said NCTO Chairman Bill Jasper, Unifi Inc. “The industry has agreed to
establish a completely unified trade association to represent its interests in Washington. The
result will be a much stronger and more aggressive voice, with a wider geographical and political
reach, on the critical matters that face our industry.”
“The merger will give our industry the ability to quickly vet and react to fast moving
policy developments in Washington,” said AMTAC Co-Chairman Jeff Price, Milliken & Company.
“More importantly, it will allow the industry to better develop a positive and proactive agenda
that properly reflects the enormous contribution our industry makes to our national economy and our
national defense.”
“The creation of this merged organization will allow the domestic textile industry to more
quickly and effectively address the wide range of federal policy developments of importance to the
over 1.5 million workers in the United States whose jobs are either directly or indirectly tied to
this critical manufacturing sector,” said NTA Chairman and AMTAC Co-Chairman George Shuster,
Cranston Print Works.
April 2, 2013
