On February 4, James B. Leonard, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Apparel and Consumer Goods in the U. S. Department of Commerce, from 2002-2006, spoke to Elon Law students about the accession of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the requirements demanded by the United States in those negotiations.
Leonard, who played important roles in the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, focused his remarks during an International Business Transactions class at Elon Law on the U.S. role in international negotiations regarding textile and apparel industries.
Leonard’s talk traced the formation of bilateral agreements limiting countries’ exports of textile and apparel products to the U.S., in order to give the domestic industry an opportunity to become more competitive.
As Leonard described it, “Importing and exporting countries would literally sit down and reach an agreement limiting how much that country could ship to us.”
Elon Law student Brian Hunt said Leonard’s insights into the inner workings of international business were unique and valuable.
“He brought firsthand knowledge to an area of law that many of us aspire to,” Hunt said.
Elon Law professor John Englar, who teaches the International Business Transactions course, noted Leonard’s contributions to United States trade policy.
”Jim Leonard’s career demonstrates the critical impact of government policies on American businesses and their work forces,” Englar said. “For over twenty years, he was engaged in an attempt to slow the loss of textile and apparel jobs in the United States by seeking a more balanced national trade policy.”
Leonard ended his lecture by demonstrating his enthusiasm surrounding the growing future of the United States textile industry.
“Truthfully, it used to take forever for a company to make a product,” Leonard said. “That’s not the case anymore. You’d get excited about the future of the domestic textile industry and the things they’re doing now if you heard about them.”
By Brittany Carter, L‘11