U.S., EU to Press China on Apparel

The United States and the European Union said Friday that they would press China to slow down exports of inexpensive clothing, but they stopped short of promising to impose emergency curbs.

New government data showed U.S. imports of textiles and clothing from China shot up nearly 41% in January from December and were nearly 30% higher than a year earlier.

The increase followed the end of a decades-old quota system Jan. 1 that had protected American and European textile producers by limiting imports.

Jim Leonard, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of Commerce, said the U.S. government would raise the issue with the Chinese to “reinforce U.S. concerns” and seek solutions.

But Commerce Department officials declined to say whether they would “self-initiate” actions aimed at curbing Chinese textile imports. That’s what U.S. manufacturers claim is needed to protect their factories from unfair competition and prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

EU officials, who are meeting with Chinese officials next week, also promised to press Beijing to slow down its exports but said they did not have enough data yet to act on a call by European industry group Euratex to impose curbs.

Beijing agreed when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to let member countries impose safeguard restrictions on its textile and apparel shipments through 2008. But importing countries have to show market disruption to impose such curbs.

U.S. textile groups said the trade figures showed imports of several categories of clothing from China increased dramatically in January compared with the same month last year.

But overall clothing imports from China and all other suppliers were up only 6.7% in January, said Laura Jones, executive director of the U.S. Assn. of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, which represents major retailers. She pointed out that other countries, including Jordan and Egypt, also showed strong gains in January.

The retail group obtained an injunction that has blocked the Bush administration from considering a dozen industry petitions filed late last year asking for import curbs based on a threat of a surge in shipments from China. Jones said the January data showed that there was no basis yet for any safeguard actions.