CAFTA socks it to Aderholt

Our last update on the Aderholt-sock situation was a few months ago. Today, Inside U.S. Trade (as usual, not linkable) has this:

"Honduras this month rejected U.S. proposals aimed at reaching a negotiated settlement in advance of the public announcement of the injury investigation that could pave the way for the U.S. to invoke a Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) textile safeguard that re-imposes duties on Honduran wool, man-made fiber and cotton socks, according to a Honduran official... Honduras, the official said, was not receptive to any of the proposals and did not make any proposals of its own."

As we've described before both on this blog and in a 2005 release, this is mostly about a promise that Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) received from the Bush administration that they would seek to limit CAFTA imports of socks by phasing out tariffs over 10 years instead of immediately. Aderholt, in return for this promise, voted for CAFTA despite expressing concerns that it would kill jobs in his district just weeks before.

Now, to no one's surprise except maybe Aderholt's, CAFTA is killing jobs in the U.S. sock industry and the promise made to Aderholt remains unfulfilled, and seems like it will remain that way for a while. In the meantime, the jobs they're a-movin':

The Federal Register notice states that of all three sock import categories, Honduras’ imports rose from 6 percent in the year ending June 2006 to 8.3 percent in the year ending June 2007, while U.S. domestic market share in all three categories has fallen from 36.6 percent in the year to date March 2006, to 29.1 percent in year to date March 2007.

P.S. sorry about that groaner of a pun.