U.S. Government Accepts Five More Special Textile China Safeguard Petitions for Consideration November 3, 2004 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the U.S. government accepted for consideration the five special textile China safeguard petitions filed on man-made fiber trousers, cotton shirts, man-made fiber shirts, non-knit shirts and underwear. The acceptance automatically triggers a 30-day public comment period followed by a 60-day decision making window.  "We are very pleased that the U.S. government accepted these petitions for consideration," said American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) Executive Director Auggie Tantillo.  "The industry conducted a painstaking amount of research in preparation for filing these cases. They are extremely strong and we are confident that the facts that we have laid out will lead to a positive decision on the merits early next year," Tantillo continued. "The six petitions now accepted are where the rubber meets the road in determining whether the textile industries in the United States, the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the developing world will be given a fair chance to compete once quotas are removed.  As the quota phase-out ticks down, these petitions are the only things that can now stop a Chinese takeover of the U.S. market.  Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake as well as the principle of fair play in textile trade.  That's why we need the U.S. government to approve these petitions early in 2005," stated Cass Johnson, President of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). "We are working very hard on the other petitions that we announced that would be filed on wool trousers, cotton sheets, and other synthetic filament fabrics.  The same stands true with the reapplications for the petitions on knit fabric, brassieres and dressing gowns.  We anticipate filing some of these petitions in the next few days," remarked Karl Spilhaus, President of the National Textile Association (NTA). The United States imported nearly $24 billion in products covered by the five petitions accepted for consideration today in 2003.  Of that total, $940 million were imports from China.  In 2003, the United States produced more than $17.5 billion in trousers and shirts.  In addition, approximately 695,000 Americans are directly employed in textile and apparel manufacturing. CONTACTS: Lloyd Wood AMTAC (202) 452-0866 or lwood@amtacdc.org Cass Johnson NCTO (202) 756-1422 or cjohnson@ncto.org David Trumbull NTA (617) 542-8220 x 2 or dtrumbull@nationaltextile.org # # #