More Goods From China Face Limits
The United States is expanding the list of clothing and textiles from China that will be hit with emergency import restrictions to protect U.S. producers, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
The new batch of Chinese goods facing restrictions are men’s and boys’ cotton and man-made-fiber shirts; man-made-fiber trousers; man-made-fiber knit shirts and blouses; and combed cotton yarn.
Last week, the administration said it was reimposing quotas on three other categories -- cotton trousers, knit shirts and underwear.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates this administration’s continued commitment to America’s textile manufacturers and their employees,” Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said in a statement.
The action comes as the Bush administration is under pressure from Congress to reverse the U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached a record $162 billion last year. China’s longtime practice of pegging its currency at 8.28 yuan to the dollar has also angered many lawmakers, who say it is an unfair trade practice.
U.S. imports of clothing from China have risen dramatically since Jan. 1, when a decades-old international quota system was phased out as the result of a 1994 global trade deal.
China agreed when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, however, to let member countries impose emergency import restrictions on its clothing and textile shipments to prevent “market disruption.”
Beijing has protested moves by the U.S. and the European Union to restrict its clothing exports. Earlier on Wednesday, China rejected U.S. pressure for quick action toward revaluing its currency and called U.S. and EU curbs on textile imports unfair.
But the U.S. and EU say they are acting within WTO rules. The new U.S. curbs stem from petitions that U.S. industry groups filed in late 2004.
Those petitions, which were based on the threat that imports would surge when the quotas were removed, have been the subject of a legal battle between retailers and textile groups.
“Failure to act would have cost tens of thousands of U.S. jobs,” said Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition.
The restrictions will raise the cost of doing business for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that expected to rely heavily on China in the post-quota world.
Laura Jones, executive director of the U.S. Assn. of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, said the Bush administration’s action would not help the textile industry survive.
“They’re making people jump through hoops for something that’s not going to save any jobs. This business [making clothes] isn’t going to come back here,” she said.
The quotas will limit the growth in China’s shipments of key clothing products to 7.5% above the previous year.
