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New mechanism will analyze the impact of imports from China and elsewhere on the US market

WASHINGTON, DC - 03/23/05 - A new system to monitor US textile and apparel imports has been set-up by the Bush Administration to support domestic manufacturers.

The system "will help analyze the impact of those imports on the US market," and "give US textile/apparel manufacturers the tools they need to compete internationally," said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a statement released yesterday.

The system will give both Commerce and the public "timely access to preliminary textile and apparel data aggregated on a category basis from US Customs and Border Protection, allowing decision makers to more quickly analyze the impact of imports on the US market," the statement said.

According to the statement, the new mechanism will be in place by the end of the first week in April, when preliminary data on textile and apparel imports for the first quarter of the year should be available.

The preliminary data will be posted biweekly on a website maintained by the Department's International Trade Administration Office of Textiles and Apparel at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/.

US textile and apparel producers have been vocal in their desire to have Washington introduce safeguard actions temporarily restricting textile and clothing imports from China, which were expected to surge after the end of the global quota system last December 31.

US industry - which claims significant job losses partly because of competition from low-cost producers in "developing" countries, particularly China - has asked the Administration to impose or re-impose quotas in 12 product categories for up to one year on textile/apparel imports from China.

Such quotas can be levied under safeguards approved as part of the 2001 US-China bilateral trade agreement, under which the US approved China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Projections tracking the forecasted pace of the growth of Chinese textile and apparel exports vary some, but virtually all are in agreement that the country's output will all but dominate the industry in the coming years.
 
Writing in a recent report published by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Linda Lim, a professor of corporate strategy and international business at the University of Michigan School of Business, wrote that China's share of the $350 billion global textile market is expected to rise from its current 20% to a maximum of 60% in the coming years.

The latest Department of Commerce figures show US imports of Chinese textiles and apparels jumped almost 34% in January from December 2004.

US textile and apparel producers have welcomed the new import monitoring system.

"This data will help to prove the industry's claim that China is disrupting the US market," said Augustine Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, a major apparel industry lobby group headquartered in Washington, DC.

US clothing retailers recently obtained a court injunction to temporarily block the safe guard actions ordered by the White House.  

They argued that the decisions were based on the mere threat of market disruption due to the expected surge in imports, "rather than on evidence of actual market disruption as required by law."

Another big importer of clothing products, the European Union, said earlier this month that it will consider emergency trade restrictions on textile products from China when those imports reach certain ceilings, which have yet to be published.

China has sought to calm the growing controversy. 

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said yesterday that the government expects its textile producers to demonstrate self-restraint to prevent disruptions to international textile trade. 

Bo cited an export tax on textile products, restrictions on investment in textile and related industries, and limits on production in that sector as steps aimed at addressing the problem.

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