Panel Clears Way for House Vote on Bill to Curb Textile Imports

The House Rules Committee, reacting to pleas to save American jobs, cleared the way Thursday for House consideration of a textile import bill just one day after a similar measure survived its first test in the Senate.

On a voice vote, the committee agreed that the full House should consider, without amendment, a bill to reduce clothing and textile imports from 12 major producing countries and restrict future imports from all nations.

But several committee members urged Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) to work with the Senate once the measure reaches the conference stage on a compromise bill that would protect the domestic shoe industry as well from cheap imports.

A ‘National Problem’

Rostenkowski, who opposes the bill, conceded that the flood of textile imports is a “national problem of crisis proportion” but added that he would prefer to deal with it in comprehensive reform of the nation’s trade laws, not protectionist legislation.

“This is not protectionist legislation,” Rules Committee member Butler Derrick (D-S.C.) said. “It enforces the (international textile agreement) that the Administration has not seen fit to enforce.”

No date was set for House action.

The Senate version, which opponents failed to kill on a 53-42 vote Wednesday, imposes import quotas on shoes as well as textiles and clothing. The Senate temporarily laid aside the textile amendment to consider other bills.

Japanese Restrictions

On Thursday, Data Resources Inc. released a new study which said that reducing Japanese import restrictions on American products would increase U.S. economic growth by $20 billion next year, creating jobs and reducing the federal deficit.

As a way to force open the Japanese market, the study recommended legislation that would require foreign countries to eliminate their unfair trade practices or face a 25% surcharge on goods they ship to the United States.

Meanwhile, lobbyists for the American Fair Trade Council, composed of retailers and importers who oppose the bill, distributed socks on Capitol Hill to demonstrate how the textile bill “socks it to America” in the form of fewer retail jobs and higher clothing prices.