The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) applauded the approval of the free trade deal between the US and Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Kevin M. Burke, president of AAFA, believes that “the permanent two-way trade flows that will be created once these agreements are fully implemented will directly support more than four million U.S. apparel and footwear industry jobs and opportunities to create more.”

South Korea is currently the fourth largest market for U.S.-made finished apparel, while U.S. cotton exports to Colombia have rocketed in the last few years thanks to the market’s growing industrialisation.