Three categories of clothing were nearly filled on yesterday night with U.S. port authorities expected to close doors today or tomorrow. Beijing ordered halt in shipments of a further fourth category, in addition. Sino-U.S. trade talks are under way to resolve trade differences and reach a comprehensive agreement.
As predicted, three of the seven restricted categories were nearly filled on Wednesday, 6 July. All subsequent shipments of these three products arriving henceforth in U.S. ports were expected to be detained until further notice, effective from Thursday or Friday.
Embargoes cover categories 338/339 (cotton knit shirts), 347/348 (cotton trousers) and 352/652 (cotton and man-made fiber underwear).
The China Chamber of COmmerce for import and Export of Textiles yesterday issued an urgent notice calling on textile producers to halt further exports in these three categories plus a further category which has already exceeded the 100% limit in shipments.
However, with products taking several weeks before arriving across the pacific, U.S. ports can expect many more containers to detain.
Textiles will form an important part of a second round of Sino-U.S. trade negotiations that have just commenced in Beijing.
After Washington will have imposed a ceiling on Chinese textile imports, Beijing hopes to reach a long-term resolution on its surging textile exports to the U.S. on the lines of its recent agreement with the EU.
The textile question is due up for discussion this coming Monday.
The vice-chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce, Zhou Xinyu, told press that "there are still a lot of technical issues about the textile disputes between China and the U.S. that need to be solved before any policy is made."
The technical problems relate to which textile products constitute the most sensitive cases and how to calculate textile trade growth.
One potential sticking point will be the methodology used in calculating imports and exports with both sides seemingly employing different ways of arriving at a final figure.
According to Jin Xu, Deputy General of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, Washington "has exaggerated China's trade surplus with the U.S.". This is just one problem that needs to be resolved before any chance of a substantial agrement is arrived at.
