Latest data from the US Department of Commerce reveal a virtual standstill of imports into the US of Chinese apparel in categories embargoed in July.
The statistics also show mixed fortunes for other products with cotton apparel categories falling on the whole in August.
All but one categories of woollen apparel increased significantly with several man-made fibre (MMF) products also going up.
The ten categories embargoed since July (338/339, 347/348, 352/652, 638/639, 647/648) have seen imports grinding to a halt during August.
However, some items in these categories have still managed to squeeze their way past US Customs.
For instance in category 338, 78,059 dozen men's knit shirts were accounted for last month although this is significantly down from the 2.6 million dozen received in June.
Categories 349/649 (Cotton and MMF bras) are now subject to quotas following the breakdown of textile talks at the end of last month between China and the US.
Imports of cotton bras doubled in August from July whilst MMF bras went up an extra 200,000 dozen to 1.4 million dozen in August.
Several other categories under investigation are also on the increase.
Category 351 (cotton nightwear) is up from 878,910 dozen in July to 960,795 dozen in August.
In category 632 (MMF hosiery), imports surged from 381,375 dozen pairs to 1.03 million dozen pairs in August.
Several categories threatened with safeguard investigations are showing signs of weakening performance.
Categories 341 (women's non-knit blouses) and 342 (cotton skirts) for example, are slightly down from July.
The monthly index confirms that this fall, replicated from July, means imports of these categories are below the average for the year to date.
The same is true for "non-threatening" categories.
Almost all the cotton categories are down in August against import figures for July.
Many MMF categories have also clearly fell during August.
All woollen categories were above their monthly average import figures in August when comparing to the preceding months of the year.
There were significant rises for categories 435 (coats), 445/446 (men's/women's sweaters) and 459 (other wool).
Imports in May were low in these categories ranging from 4,000 dozen to 29,000 dozen.
August figures show these have increased dramatically with 391,000 dozen women's wool sweaters being imported for the month.
