Washington, DC  -  Strengthening East Alabama’s struggling textile industry and helping stop unfair trading practices should be among the top priorities for the Bush Administration’s new Commerce Secretary, Congressman Mike Rogers wrote in a letter today.

Rogers said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who was confirmed yesterday by the Senate, should do all he could in his new position to ensure that the Third District’s textile manufacturers are better protected from unfair trading practices. Rogers said that as the son of a textile worker, “I know first hand how textile jobs have helped support thousands of families in Alabama and across the Nation.”

“Manufactures in my district have endured unfair trade practices that include currency manipulations, domestic subsidizations, nonexistent labor and environmental laws, commodity dumping, and many other attempts by countries to unlevel the trade playing field to their advantage,” he continued. “I call upon you to ensure that our textile manufacturing sector is protected from the willful and destructive actions of nations that insist on abdicating their World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations at the expense of hard working Americans.”

Rogers also told Gutierrez that Alabama workers only wanted a fair and level playing field on which to compete. “American workers are among the most efficient and productive in the world,” he said. “When the playing field is fair and level, no other country can compete with us.”

Rogers concluded the letter by inviting Gutierrez to his East Alabama district for a tour of local textile manufacturing facilities, and to join him in a discussion with local textile workers.