US Exports are Worth 260.8 Billion USD so far in 2022
Glen Raven Inc is a fabric manufacturing and marketing company that was founded in the 1870s and is now an international textile supplier. The company is well known for creating pantyhose in the 1950s and manufacturing duck cloth that was used for tents during World War I. Glen Raven Inc has several subsidiaries including Dickson Constant, Strata Systems Inc, and Trivantage. In 2021 the company spent 120,000 USD on lobbying and has spent 70,000 USD so far this year. Hired to lobby on the company’s behalf, Missy Branson is the president of Branson360 and has held that position since 2009. Branson was hired for a sum of 30,000 USD. Branson has only been hired by two clients so far this year, but they cover issues like manufacturing, tariffs, and trade.
“If 2020 was a year marked by an economic downturn and a once-in-a-generation pandemic and health crisis, then 2021 was defined by a rebound of remarkable proportions,” stated David Poston the chairman of the National Council of Textile Organizations.
The two bills Branson is lobbying for are S. 1260 and H.R. 4521, both of which are named the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. Despite being introduced to the house at similar times, April and September of 2021 respectively, H.R. 4521 is further along in the process to becoming codified law. The bill is wide in scope focusing on US technology and communications, national security and foreign relations, domestic manufacturing, and trade and education. Some of the specific provisions are: establishing a Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the National Science Foundation, authorizing various programs for space exploration, authorizing foreign assistance or the Indo-Pacific region, impose sanctions on China for human rights abuses and cybersecurity, reauthorizing through fiscal year 2027 international education channels, and extends he authority of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through fiscal year 2025 to lease its non-excess real property and related personal property.
Free Trade Agreements
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a consensus between two or more countries in which they agree on certain obligations that impact trades in goods and services. The main goal of FTAs is to reduce barriers to US exports, protect competing US interests abroad, and enhance the rule of law in the FTA partner countries. The Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) is the first free trade agreement between the United States and a handful of smaller developing state economies. These include the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. CAFTA-DR is improving worker’s rights and conditions in the region through the enforcement of labor protections including the ability of workers to exercise their rights. The agreement requires transparency and fair procedures in government actions. The US currently has free trade agreements with twenty countries including Israel, Mexico, Panama, and Singapore.
