Washington and Beijing inked an agreement to regulate textiles and apparel trade between the two countries in November 2005, which will came into effect from January 1, 2006.
This was necessitated because some imports into US, such as cotton trousers, had jumped beyond 1000 percent in 2005 due to ending of global quota system.
Intense Chinese competition had put US textiles industry into dire straits and nearly 400,000 jobs were lost since 2001.
The US tried to keep the situation on an even keel in the form of temporary quotas, which will now be replaced by the quotas, under the new agreement.
As per the terms of agreement between the two countries, imports from China will be more than $5 billion, increasing gradually till the year 2008.
