You are Lorena Fiallos, general manager of MHEX, a weaving mill in the Puerto Cortés free zone in Honduras. On Friday Washington announced a 25% tariff on synthetic fabric whose yarn was not spun inside CAFTA-DR, and yours comes from China. Your board expects the first-quarter plan on Friday 20 February.
The situation
Monday 16 February 2026, half past seven in the morning. MHEX buys its inputs, weaves the fabric and sells it, almost all of it to US apparel and outdoor-gear brands. Line A, a basic polyester, sells at US$2.40 a metre and costs US$1.80 to make. Line B, a water-repellent technical nylon, sells at US$4.50 and costs US$3.45. The yearly plan is 2.8 million metres of A and 1.2 million of B; fixed costs come to US$125,000 a quarter and there is US$2.0 million in the bank.
Elmer Banegas, your trade adviser, sums up the rule in two sentences: under the treaty, synthetic fabric enters duty-free only if its yarn was spun inside the region. Weaving in Honduras is not enough. The tariff takes effect on 30 March and is paid by the importer: US$0.60 more per metre of A and US$1.13 per metre of B. Your first quarter ships before that date; the next three do not. In Guatemala there are mills using regional yarn that will sell tariff-free.
Héctor Sabillón, in purchasing, found two quotes for qualifying yarn within a week: Hilaturas Valcorza, in Monterrey, at US$1.45 a kilo, seven-day delivery and a ten-ton minimum; and Corvane USA, in South Carolina, at US$1.55, two-to-three-day delivery and a five-ton minimum. Chinese yarn costs US$1.20. By his sums a metre of A goes up by US$0.15 to US$0.18 and a metre of B by US$0.20 to US$0.22. Nobody knows how many metres clients will keep ordering with the surcharge. Briarpeak Outdoor, 15% of sales, wants to talk on Wednesday "about April".