Three years after its implementation, the Earned Import Allowance Program (EIAP) is not providing enough incentives to help boost the competitiveness of Dominican apparel exports in the U.S. market, as intended, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in its publication Earned Import Allowance Program: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Program for Certain Apparel from the Dominican Republic; Third Annual Review.

The EIAP allows apparel manufacturers in the Dominican Republic who use U.S. fabric to produce certain apparel to earn a credit that can be used to ship eligible apparel made with non-U.S.-produced fabric into the United States duty free. The Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, as amended, requires the USITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, to evaluate annually the effectiveness of the EIAP program and make recommendations for improvements.

The USITC's third annual review was submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on July xx, 2012. Highlights of the report follow.

• As currently structured, the EIAP has not provided enough incentives to curtail the ongoing declines in the Dominican Republic's production of woven cotton bottoms and exports.
• Although U.S. exports of cotton bottom-weight fabrics grew in 2011, the rate of growth slowed significantly from the first two years of the program.
• The USITC received several recommendations from industry and other sources concerning improvements to the EIAP. The recommendations were the same as those offered during the first and second annual reviews. They included lowering the 2-for-1 ratio of U.S. to foreign fabric to a 1-for-1 ratio; including other types of fabrics and apparel items in the EIAP; and changing the requirement that dyeing, finishing, and printing of eligible fabrics take place in the United States.

Earned Import Allowance Program: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Program for Certain Apparel from the Dominican Republic; Third Annual Review (Investigation No. 332-503, USITC Publication 4340, July 2012) is available on the USITC's Internet site at http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4340.pdf. A CD-ROM of the report may be requested by e-mailing pubrequest@usitc.gov, calling 202-205-2000, or contacting the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may also be faxed to 202-205-2104.

USITC general factfinding investigations, such as this one, cover matters related to tariffs or trade and are generally conducted at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Senate Committee on Finance, or the House Committee on Ways and Means. The resulting reports convey the Commission's objective findings and independent analyses on the subject investigated. The Commission makes no recommendations on policy or other matters in its general factfinding reports. Upon completion of each investigation, the USITC submits its findings and analyses to the requester. General factfinding investigation reports are subsequently released to the public, unless they are classified by the requester for national security reasons.