US mulls quotas on 13 more Chinese textiles

[HenryTo]

Excuse my cynicism but if "market disruption" means that we as consumers enjoy cheaper prices for good-quality clothes, then I am all for it. While the U.S. textile industry is advocating protectionism, the free market forces are wrecking havoc on the unionized auto manufacturing industry. We will see how that turns out - but there is now no stopping these forces.
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Thursday October 6, 4:05 AM
US mulls quotas on 13 more Chinese textiles

Photo: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government accepted an industry request to consider quotas on another 13 types of Chinese textile imports, officials said.

The inter-agency Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) said it would rule in January on whether quotas are needed against the 13 categories because of "market disruption".

The decision covers a possible extension to quotas on nine Chinese categories that were due to expire at the end of this year, and new quotas on four other categories not previously under scrutiny.

US textile groups welcomed the decision, which came after Sino-US textile talks here failed to make headway last week.

"We are pleased that the US government accepted these petitions for review," said American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition executive director Auggie Tantillo.

"If China is unwilling to agree to a reasonable comprehensive textile deal that covers all of these products, we urge the US government to approve these cases and implement safeguards in a timely and effective manner," he said.

With the addition of the 13 new cases, CITA is now debating quotas on imports of 27 types of Chinese garments and textiles.

The United States and China plan another round of talks on their drawn-out battle to forge a comprehensive agreement on textiles trade this month.

In the absence of such an agreement, Washington has been slapping quotas on individual categories of Chinese imports following US industry complaints that China's garment shipments have exploded this year.

The CITA panel, which is led by the Commerce Department, has already ruled favourably on US industry requests for safeguards on nine other Chinese import categories this year.