With a new round of talks between U.S. and Chinese textile negotiators scheduled to start next week, U.S. textile manufacturers have asked the federal government for restrictions on more types of Chinese textile and apparel goods.
Industry and labor groups representing the textile sector are seeking limits on imports of wool suits, man-made fiber coats, cheesecloth and polyester filament fabric.
Through July, the United States has imported $1.78 billion worth of goods in those categories, with China accounting for $478 million -- about a fourth of the total.
Since all quotas on Chinese textile goods came down Jan. 1, the number of wool suits imported from China grew by 890 percent over the same period in 2004, an increase of about 680,075 suits. With those gains, China increased its share of the U.S. import market in wool suits to 16 percent in July 2005 from 2 percent in July 2004.
"China's export surge in these categories released from quota on Jan. 1, 2005, is directly attributable to the illegal and unfair subsidies given to their producers in an effort to drive all other competitors out of the market," says Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations. "These subsidies include illegal currency manipulation, nonperforming loans, state-owned enterprises, reduced or free utilities, shipping and property taxes, free land and factories, and export tax rebates. No industry playing by free-market rules can compete with an industry allowed to sell into a free market but not play by free-market rules."
If approved, the so-called "safeguard quotas" would limit the increase in the Chinese imports to 7.5 percent over the course of about a year.
A provision for safeguard quotas was included as part of the agreement under which China entered the World Trade Organization. If the quota is approved between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, it will last 12 months from the date of imposition; if it's imposed between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, it will last through the end of the year.
