Measuring competition for textiles: Does the United States make the grade?

Increasing competition from foreign manufacturers threatens the viability of textile producers in the United States. This paper evaluates the U.S. competitive position in the cotton yarn segment using established quantifiable measures and provides an overall competitive assessment. The measures employed show the United States to be at a relative competitive disadvantage when compared to major international producers of cotton yarn. However, the margin of this competitive disadvantage is shown to be relatively small and in some cases, decreasing.