If a determination is made that such yarn is in short supply, the United States and Chile could agree to modify the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement rules of origin for woven fabrics of artificial filament yarn to allow the use of non-US and non-Chilean filament yarn of viscose rayon.

Responding to a request by the Chilean government, the US department of commerce’s committee for the implementation of textile agreement recently sought public inputs by April 6 on whether filament yarn of viscose rayon (VFY) classified in the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement can be supplied by the domestic industry in commercial quantities in a timely manner.

The United States originally received a request in this regard from Chile in June 2015 and sought public inputs, but received no information indicating that the domestic industry could supply the subject yarn in commercial quantities in a timely manner.

Both sides continued to consult on the subject origin rule change but no such change was ever implemented.

However, Chilean authorities reiterated their interest last November in advancing this origin rule modification and additional input is now being sought given the period of time that has elapsed since the original request for input.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)