WASHINGTON (AFP) - China has taken control of half of the US apparel market in areas where quotas have been removed, gaining much of it from other developing countries, a US textile group said.
The National Council of Textile Organizations, citing official US government data, said the developing world has lost three billion dollars in exports while China has gained almost eight billion dollars in textile sales during the past four years.
The NCTO said the situation "highlights the need for a textile sectoral solution" in World Trade Organization talks.
A global accord on textile trade quotas expired at the end of 2005, allowing China to increase its market share. But deals limiting Chinese exports were negotiated by the United States and European Union.
The NCTO said however that failure to reach a deal under the WTO Doha Round would "lead to millions of job losses around the globe," with industries hard hit in Africa, Central America, Mexico and Andean countries as well as big Asian producers such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand.
"One and half million jobs would be lost in Mexico, Central America and the Andean region alone with hundreds of thousands of additional textile job losses in the United States," NCTO said.
The NCTO, citing US Commerce Department data from April, said every major supplier except India and Vietnam has lost large amounts of market share in the Untied States to China since 2002, and that the situation is similar in other major markets.
"China's share of the Japanese and Australian apparel markets is now over 75 percent," it said. "In the EU, in apparel categories where quotas have been removed since 2002, China's share is now 74 percent."
Cass Johnson, President of NCTO, said a special WTO accord on textiles "will be sending a message that it will defend textile and apparel jobs worldwide from China's predatory pricing, currency manipulation and vast government subsidies."
