DuPont has two thirds of the American hosiery nylon market, having lost the other third to Nilit and other nylon producers. DuPont can get some of that back through this year's trade bill, which, like most such legislation, is sponsored by the Senate finance committee chairman. He's Senator William Roth of Delaware, where DuPont is the largest employer. Ostensibly the legislation has nothing to do with either Israel or panty hose. It simply expands the 1984 Caribbean pact to exclude from tariffs all apparel cut and assembled in the 27 island states and bordering Central and Latin American countries from U.S.-made fibers.
Panty hose accounts for less than a tenth of that.
Privately held Nilit is owned by the Levi family, which emigrated from Italy and founded the firm 30 years ago. But congressional leaders so far have not paid heed. Fill in this form for your free trial issue. U.S. indexes are real-time. Forbes 40 Index powered by Telemet .