HAYES ASKS DEWINE TO UNBLOCK NOMINATION
Byline: Joyce Barrett and Jim Ostroff
WASHINGTON — Rita Hayes, the administration’s U.S. textile ambassador nominee, met Thursday with Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in an attempt to ease his objections to Senate approval of her new post.
DeWine, responding to the urgings of Columbus, Ohio-based The Limited Inc. and other retail interests, blocked Senate consideration of the Hayes nomination last week, sources said. Under Senate rules, he placed a hold on consideration of her nomination, and sources said Thursday he’s not expected to release it in the immediate future, although he’s not expected to hold it up indefinitely.
An aide to DeWine confirmed he was the senator that blocked the Hayes appointment and also confirmed he was meeting with her. However, the aide said he had no further information on the matter, and DeWine could not be reached. Neither Hayes nor a Limited spokesman could be reached for comment.
In exchange for releasing his hold, sources said, DeWine is seeking a commitment from Hayes that she will seek to delay implementation of a controversial rule-of-origin change for apparel for six months to a year beyond its effective date of July 1. The change, included in the implementing legislation for the GATT Uruguay Round on behalf of textile interests, would shift the country of origin, for import quota purposes, from where apparel is cut to where it is sewn. Importers say the change would upset long established sourcing patterns.
DeWine also is seeking, according to sources, a revision of the 10-year schedule for phasing out the Multi-Fiber Arrangement that began in 1995. Retailers and importers have complained loudly that the schedule adopted by the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, which Hayes headed from April 1993 until August 1995, retains quotas on most apparel until the end of the 10 years. Retailers and importers have alleged this is a ploy by domestic apparel and textile firms, with the administration’s assistance, to seek a special exemption from the World Trade Organization to continue the MFA, arguing elimination of so many quotas in “sensitive” apparel imports in one fell swoop would endanger the survival of U.S. manufacturers.
DeWine, though, was not the only senator to block the ambassadorial post, sources said. Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi reportedly had a hold on Hayes’ nomination but released it on Tuesday. Neither the senator nor his aides were available for comment.
Meanwhile, Hayes’s nomination remains stalled on the Senate calendar. The administration, and her chief Senate backers, Sens. Jesse Helms (R., N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Strom Thurmond (R., S.C.), sought to attain swift approval nomination during the holidays, with Helms’s panel forwarding her nomination to the Senate for consideration without holding public hearings.
Importer and retail interests object to the existence of the post of textile ambassador on the grounds that it gives the domestic industry critical sway over trade decisions involving textile and apparel imports. No other industry has a special ambassador, retailers and importers have complained, and textiles should not be treated differently.
Publicly, however, industry officials say they are objecting to Hayes’s nomination because no public hearings were held.
“This is not about Rita Hayes personally,” one industry official said. “This is about the administration trying to sneak through her nomination. No one would have stopped her nomination if there had been hearings.”
Hayes has served as chief U.S. textile negotiator since September, following a 29-month tenure as the top U.S. textile and apparel policy maker at the Commerce Department. Traditionally, the chief textile negotiator is nominated to be an ambassador, and the committee has held public hearings on these nominations.