NCTO Calls on Administration to Accept 301 Petition on Chinese Currency Manipulation   - Cites 53 Percent Chinese Price Drop & 1,009 Percent increase in Chinese Imports -   (Washington DC) The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) today urged the Bush Administration to accept the 301 petition filed against Chinese currency manipulation by the China Currency Coalition, of which NCTO is a member.    Cass Johnson, President of NCTO, stated: “When a country like China uses its currency as an economic weapon, then we must arm ourselves accordingly.   This petition gives the U.S. government a strong weapon that it has previously lacked – the threat of sanctions against China – and NCTO urges the government to take it up in defense of U.S. jobs and the rule of law.”   Johnson continued, “To its credit, over the past year, the government has tried to engage China in a process of meaningful currency reform.  But the fact remains - China has refused to reform.   Its leaders have remained intransigent even as China has continued - and even substantially increased – the already vast scale of its illegal currency manipulation.  And no one can tell our workers, who are watching jobs be lost every day, when or even if China will stop.  It is now time to for more aggressive action.”   “For the U.S. textile industry, the stakes are extraordinarily high.  Remaining quotas on Chinese textile and apparel goods will be removed on January 1st.   In product areas where quotas had previously been removed, China used its currency as a lethal weapon, dropping its prices by an average of 53 percent.  The impact was felt not only in the US but all around the world.   In just 30 months time, China went from 9 percent of the market to 72 percent . . . and continues to grow[1].  While hundreds of our mills went out of business, and countries from Bangladesh to Mexico suffered major losses, China used its currency to pile up a 1,009 percent increase in two and a half years.  This is not free market competition – this is part of a plan by the Chinese government to use illegal tools in order to dominate production in this and many other industrial sectors.  It must be stopped.”   “The Chinese have played a clever game of all talk and no action.  Our workers and our companies can wait no longer.  We urge the Administration to put muscle behind its words and take up this case.” [1] Go to www.ncto.org, press release on 9/1/04 for more information. # # #  National Council of Textile Organizations 1776 I Street, NW, Ste 900; Washington, DC 20006 202-756-4878; fax:  202-756-1520; www.ncto.org