US asked to maintain textile quotas on China imports

The US textile industry has officially requested the government to maintain quotas on 13 categories of the imports from China. A petition to this effect has been filed with the full support of the industry associations bringing uncertainty in the world textile trade only two months ahead of the quota-free period, says a report from Emerging Textiles, a leading source of information on textile and clothing.
The world textile sources believe that if the petition succeeds it would encourage the textile industry in European Union to file a similar petition and pave the way for suspension of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) quota-free regime indefinitely.
The new petition is reported to have full support of the industry associations in a large number of low-cost countries while the US imports have warned that buying plans would be dramatically disrupted. More than 50 percent of the US apparel imports will be affected by petitions even before decision are taken by the US administration.
A first petition covering imports of cotton trousers from China, in categories 347 and 348, was filed last Friday by a coalition of six US industry associations grouped in NCTO, which is supported by major labour union 'Unite Here'.
The petitioners asked the US administration to maintain quotas on the imports from China under the specific textile safeguard accepted by Beijing a few years ago in exchange for its accession to the WTO.
The Emerging Textiles said that nine additional petitions were expected to be filed that week with the US interagency, CITA, covering other major categories 647/648 (man-made fiber trousers), 338-339 (cotton knit shirts), 638/639 (MMF knit shirts), 340/640 (cotton and MMF woven shirts), 352/652 (cotton and MMF underwear), and 447 (wool trousers).
The textile categories will also be included in the list with cotton sheets (361), synthetic filament fabrics' (620) and cotton yarn (301).
The US administration has 15 days before saying if it accepts investigating the issue. A spokeswoman already made it clear that CITA would make a full investigation. The US officials will then have 90 days before officially approving or rejecting petitions.
The petitions only cover dollar 1.96 billion in US textile and clothing imports accounting for 13.8 percent of Chinese imports and 2.5 percent of total US imports from the entire world, NCTO said. More than 50 percent of total US apparel imports would actually be affected by new petitions since additional uncertainty in the business would be brought by petitions, it added.