Singapore — March 13, 2013 — At the close of the 16th Round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
negotiations today, chief negotiators reported that they had achieved the goal set for the round:
to put the negotiations on an accelerated track toward conclusion of a next-generation,
comprehensive agreement in the 2013 time frame envisioned by President Obama and the Leaders of the
ten other TPP countries.

Through the TPP, the United States is seeking to help establish a trade and investment
framework that supports U.S. job creation by addressing the issues faced by U.S. stakeholders in
the 21st-century, promoting U.S. competitiveness, and expanding U.S. trade in the dynamic
Asia-Pacific region. The United States also is seeking to advance core U.S. values in the
agreement, such as transparency, labor rights, and environmental protection.

U.S. Chief Negotiator and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Barbara Weisel reports that
building on the consensus the TPP countries have already achieved on a significant number of the
issues under negotiation, during this round the 11 delegations intensified their drive to find
mutually-acceptable paths forward on the remaining issues in the legal texts of the agreement. As a
result of active intersessional engagement, and the pragmatism and flexibility shown by all
countries during this round, the delegations succeeded in finding solutions to many issues in a
wide range of areas such as customs, telecommunications, investment, services, technical barriers
to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property, regulatory coherence,
development, and other issues. With this progress, some negotiating groups, including customs,
telecommunications, regulatory coherence, and development will not meet again to discuss the legal
texts in future rounds and any remaining work in these areas will be taken up in late-stage rounds
as the agreement is finalized. This will allow the TPP countries to concentrate their efforts on
resolving the most challenging issues that remain, including related to intellectual property,
competition, and environment.

The 11 countries also made progress during this round in continuing to develop the
comprehensive packages that will provide market access for goods, services and investment, and
government procurement. Productive exchanges occurred on tariff packages on industrial goods,
agriculture, and textiles, as well as on rules of origin and how best to promote the development of
regional supply chains in order to benefit companies based in the United States and the other TPP
countries. In addition, negotiators discussed each country’s proposals to open services and
investment and government procurement markets. The 11 countries agreed on additional intersessional
work to build on market access advances made since the last round, to continue movement toward
outcomes consistent with the high level of ambition that Leaders agreed to seek.

On March 6, the TPP negotiations adjourned temporarily so that negotiators could engage with
the more than 300 stakeholders from TPP countries who registered to join the stakeholder events in
Singapore. In response to stakeholder requests, Singapore arranged both for direct stakeholder
engagement with negotiators and for 60 stakeholders to make presentations on a wide variety of
issues. Also that day, Weisel and fellow Chief Negotiators briefed stakeholders and took questions
on the substance and process of the TPP talks.

In mid-April, TPP Trade Ministers will meet on the margins of the APEC Trade Ministers
meeting in Surabaya, Indonesia to discuss progress to date and provide further guidance to
negotiators. As the negotiations draw to a close, high-level officials will be more actively
engaged with one another on ways to address the remaining sensitive issues.

The 17th round of TPP negotiations will be held in Lima, Peru, from May 15-24.

Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative

Last week, the Rupp Report wrote about the initiative against rip-off artists, as it is called in
Switzerland, or against Fats Cats, as called misleadingly in some other countries
(See ”
The
Rupp Report: Is Enough Now Enough?”
TextileWorld.com, March 5, 2013). Sometimes, it seems that the top managers
of financial institutions live in another world and are simply unaware of the opinion of the people
on Main Street. This ignorance can be recognized too in the global blue jeans manufacturing
industry. The growing consciousness about the ecological and social behavior of some big retailers
could lead — at least in the Western world — to some immense problems.

Evergreen Jeans

The whole world wears and buys jeans — it is a multi-billion-dollar business. When Levi
Strauss started his business in the early 1870s to transform denim fabrics into pants, reinforced
using copper rivets, he was proud to provide a product that was very durable. By the way, the word
“denim” comes from “de Nimes” — meaning from Nimes, a city in southern France. Initially, it was an
indigo-dyed fabric for sailcloth.

For decades, jeans were produced in countries like the United States, with leading brands
such as Levi’s® and Wrangler®. Then, the production of the finished jeans — the cutting and sewing
of the denim — moved to Central America. However, the main share of jeans production moved 10 years
ago – yes, to China, and particularly to Xintang in southern Guangdong Province. Xintang is called
“the secret capital city of blue jeans.” In some 3,000 mills, workers produce more than 800 million
pieces per year. Experts say that every third pair of jeans made on this planet comes from Xintang.

Downgrading

Over the years, the production of jeans has been turned on its ear. Quality is no longer the
prerequisite for success. It’s the price and the look of the product. The price depends on the
bargaining ability of the buyer. The average price is between 35 and 40 renminbi — less than 5
euros or about US$5.50 to $6.50 — for a pair of jeans. However, this is not the only problem. The
real problem is modern jeans fashion — in other words, the destruction of a product to make it
fashionable. Successful jeans for young customers must have a used look.

Finishing (?)

Years ago, the first finishing of denim garments had to do with stonewashing them using
pumice stones. Today, what the producers in Xintang call “finishing” is a harsh accumulation of
treatments such as bleaching, spraying, lasing, damaging, and even the globally banned
sandblasting. Nobody knows exactly what kinds of chemicals are applied. In particular, bleaching
agents are very problematic for the workers, their skin and the environment. Officially, more
rigorous environmental laws are established, but in certain jeans factories, nobody cares about
them.

No Protection

Bleaching and sandblasting are the big problems for the employees. Nobody is protected
against the smells and the dangerous chemicals. Moreover, sandblasting is executed in an open room,
where the particles are flying around. These young workers will suffer from a disease that mainly
occurred in the past in coal miners: pneumoconiosis, also called silicosis. The employees are
working under conditions that no one in the Western world would accept: 15 to 16 hours per day, 30
days in a row. Then they have one day off. Most of them live and sleep in a small room with a group
of colleagues. The workers are paid by the piece, so the pace in the workshop is extremely high.
Fibrous materials from the various treatments are blown off using high pressure in a very noisy
process. Some workers are said to become deaf after one year.

Not only the people, but also the environment is severely harmed. Wastewater is mostly
discharged without any cleaning into the Pearl River.

“Clean” Jeans (?)

The producers know exactly that Western laws demand that no harmful chemicals are allowed on
the textile products. So, for example, the jeans are washed very often to wash out any prohibited
chemicals. Two hundred liters of water are used to wash out 1 kilogram of jeans. Then they are
“clean” enough to be exported. There are some exceptions: It happens from time to time that
deliveries are stopped at the borders.

Traceability

This report was not written to accuse any one party in this game. It was written to open the
eyes of the parties in the game. Today, most consumers don’t know what they are doing when they buy
these products. Of course, they know where it comes from, but they have virtually no idea how it
was treated. However, with the rising consciousness of the younger population regarding
environmental and social components of textile production, it is just a matter of time before this
game has to start with new rules.

Today, every party in the game passes the buck to the next party and shrugs his/her
shoulders, claiming the other party is responsible. Big brands are still closing their eyes. As one
well-known retailer claims on its homepage: “Our vision is that all business operations shall be
run in a way that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.” Why, then, is it not
possible to get in contact with the retailer about this issue?

But many organizations that are concerned about the workers in these factories, and also
discerning companies are asking more questions about sustainability and demanding even more
traceability of the goods in question. And — the players should not forget — more and more, every
bad story to be published is being picked up in the social media and going around the world. Nobody
from the big labels is willing to talk about this issue. It’s not enough to fill the homepage with
nice words; you’ve got to live it. Of course, the first aim of business is to make money – however,
the issue also has to do with dignity and respect for every human being.

March 12, 2013

Maag — a Switzerland-based provider of gear pumps, filtration systems and pelletizers for the
plastics, chemicals, petrochemical and food industries — reports its state-of-the-art screen change
filter technology is being utilized at the world’s largest polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
production line, operated by a customer in the Middle East.

The continuous screen changers were installed as part of the customer’s expansion project,
which was completed in 2012 and increased its manufacturing capacity of PET bottle-grade resin by
half a million tons annually. Maag previously had provided the plant’s production line with a
complete range of melt pump equipment based on the MTR® (Melt-To-Resin) process designed by
Germany-based Uhde Inventa-Fischer. For the expansion, Maag developed the customized filtration
unit in cooperation with Uhde Inventa-Fischer.

According to Maag, the screen changers have a small footprint and feature patent-pending
arched filters that offer a very low melt resistance time, particularly in high-viscosity resin
applications. In contrast to Maag’s supersized screen changers equipped with candle filters, the
arched filters utilize disposable one-way filters, eliminating the process of cleaning the candle
filter bundle to determine a filter’s usability.

“Though duplex and simplex filters are still widely used, piston-based screen-changers are a
natural, cost effective addition to Maag’s portfolio, and they meet the increasingly technical
demands of our customers,” said Ueli Thürig, CEO, Maag. “As for the adoption of arched screens it
allows manufacturers to dedicate 75 percent of the surface of the cylinder to filtration. Finally,
and contrary to traditional breaker plates facing each other, our very smart design also permits
straight pump connections that reduce the investment further with no need for additional pipe
work.”

Maag reports that changeovers take less than 10 minutes, require only one operator, and do
not require the use of cranes or complex tools. The screen changers may be constructed of woven
wire mesh or fiber metal mesh, depending on the melt contamination.

March 12, 2013

SSM Industries Inc., Spring City, Tenn. — a manufacturer of flame-resistant (FR), cut-resistant
and thermal fabrics for military, fire and rescue and industrial applications — and National
Safety Apparel (NSA), Cleveland — a manufacturer of protective apparel for industrial safety
applications — have partnered to introduce a lightweight, high-arc-rated FR cotton fabric for use
in protective apparel for the electrical and utility industries.

PRO-CFR® 12 CAL weighs 6.25 ounces per square yard and registers an arc thermal protection
value of 12 calories per square centimeter in a single garment layer. The knit fabric is produced
at SSM’s plant and made by NSA into garments in both T-shirt and Henley styles.

“SSM is proud to align with NSA. Both companies are innovative and dynamic,” said Steve
Smith, vice president, sales and marketing, SSM. “We are working together to bring PRO-CFR 12 CAL,
a cutting-edge fabric option, to the market. It is important for us to work with a garment
manufacturer like NSA who shares our vision in the safety industry. Safety protection and comfort
have been the goal in creating this flame resistant clothing option.”

March 12, 2013

Eriez — an Erie, Pa.-based manufacturer of magnetic, vibratory, inspection and flotation technology
for applications in textiles and other industries — has introduced the Eriez® line of E-Z Tec® DSP
metal detectors for detecting ferrous, nonferrous and stainless-steel contaminants.

Designed for use in the textile, food, pharmaceutical, rubber and chemical industries, the
metal detectors feature advanced signal processing to provide optimum performance and improved
product purity. The E-Z Tec DSP detectors offer simple product setup, monitoring and operation,
according to Eriez, and feature an easy-to-use, ¼ video graphics array touch-screen interface; a
4-inch-high-by-5-inch-wide angled control with backlit screen; and an on-screen keypad for entering
numeric data and values.

Other features include stainless-steel construction, consolidated electronics, calibration
verification, quick recovery after detection of large tramp metal, reject confirmation, and Spanish
and Quebec French as secondary language options.

March 12, 2013