WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. textile, apparel and fiber producing trade associations announced the filing of seven safeguard petitions covering fourteen categories to limit the growth of U.S. textile and apparel imports from China on Wednesday, April 6.

Combined U.S. imports in the fourteen categories covered by the April 6 announcement totaled $14.24 billion in 2004, with imports from China accounting for $1.45 billion.

The value of the Chinese imports covered by the petitions account for 8.1 percent of the $17.8 billion in textile and apparel imports from China and 1.6 percent of the $89.7 billion in imports from the world (including China) in 2004. 

In terms of the $196.7 billion in U.S. imports of all goods from China in 2004, these petitions affect only about 0.7 percent of that trade.  

Trade Association/Labor Union Comments

Karl Spilhaus, President of the National Textile Association, said, “We're filing these petitions because of the extreme disruption in the American textile industry caused by an unprecedented of flood of imports from China.”

Spilhaus commented specifically on the request for a safeguard restraint on brassiere imports, stating, “At the end of 2003 the government found that increased imports of brassieres from China had caused actual market disruption and invoked the safeguard. Since that safeguard expired near the end of 2004, the preliminary data shows huge increases in import volume from China – 35 percent growth on top of its already existing 35 percent share of the U.S. import market. At these rates, there will be nothing left of the fabric producers in the United States or of our garment-making partners in the Caribbean/Central America region.”

American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) Executive Director Auggie Tantillo said, “While the filings of only seven petitions were announced today – more petitions will be filed in the weeks ahead.  We will keep filing petitions until the United States and China reach and a comprehensive agreement to moderate the growth of Chinese textile and apparel imports to a reasonable level.”

Tantillo went on to say, “In the past, the U.S. government has taken four months to decide cases filed by U.S. industry when the safeguard procedures allow the U.S. government to take a decision in as little as six weeks.  The U.S. industry will lose tens of thousands of jobs if the U.S. government waits the full four months to act.  We need the U.S. government not only to approve these cases, but to approve them as quickly as possible, which they could do by mid-to-late May.”

“The U.S. textile industry appreciates the Bush Administration’s self-initiation of safeguards on cotton trousers, cotton shirts, and underwear.  Damage, however, is occurring in other categories too.  That’s why the U.S. textile industry will file these additional petitions,” remarked Cass Johnson, President of the National Council of Textile Organizations.

“China’s export surge in these categories released from quota on January 1, 2005 is directly attributable to the illegal and unfair subsidies given to their producers in an effort to drive all other competitors out of the market.  These subsidies include illegal currency manipulation, non-performing loans, state-owned enterprises, reduced or free utilities, shipping, and property taxes, free land and factories, and export tax rebates.  No industry playing by free-market rules can compete with an industry allowed to sell into a free-market but not play by free-market rules,”

Johnson concluded.

“The special textile China safeguards contained in China’s accession agreement to the WTO give the U.S. government the right to invoke safeguards if the U.S. market is threatened with disruption that will impede the orderly development of trade.  Our customers are simply asking the U.S. government to act within the rights granted to it by China’s accession agreement to the WTO,” said Gaylon Booker, Trade Consultant to the National Cotton Council.

UNITE HERE President Bruce Raynor stressed, “Since quotas expired on January 1, 2005, 191 apparel and textile workers have lost their jobs every single day. The crisis is now. If safeguards aren't implemented immediately, more plants will close and thousands of workers will be without a job.”

Facts on Imports, Jobs, and the Safeguard Process  

Press conference participants noted that data on which the safeguard filings are based simply confirms long established trends such as:

• In the first three months of the year, all U.S. textile and apparel imports from China increased by 63 percent.  

• China’s share of the U.S. import market in the apparel categories released from quota on January 1, 2002 jumped from less than 10 percent to more than 70 percent in less than three years.

• According to Chinese Customs data, China's exports to the United States in the most sensitive apparel categories are up 349 percent for the first two months of this year while prices are down 31 percent.

• Since January 2001, U.S. textile and apparel employment has fallen from 1,047,200 to 665,900 as of March 2005.  The loss of 381,300 jobs represents 36.4 percent of the January 2001 workforce.

Textile safeguard petitions are filed with the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA).  CITA is a five-member interagency group comprising of representatives from the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, Labor and Treasury as well as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.  At least three agencies must vote to approve any safeguard petition.

Once a safeguard petition is filed, CITA has up to 15 working days to accept or reject the petition on its technical merits.  If the petition is accepted, a 30-day public comment then commences, followed by a 60-day CITA decision-making window.

If CITA approves a safeguard petition, by terms of its WTO accession agreement with the United States, a consultation period then begins.  If no agreement is reached between the parties, the United States can limit Chinese exports in the safeguard categories to 7.5 percent growth.

CONTACTS:

AMTAC – Lloyd Wood, Dir. of Media Relations

(202) 452-0866 or lwood@amtacdc.org

NCTO – Missy Branson, Vice-President

(202) 756-1440 or mbranson@ncto.org

NTA – David Trumbull, Dir. of Member Services

(617) 542-8220 x 2 or dtrumbull@nationaltextile.org

NCC – Marjory Walker, Director, Communications Services

(800) 377-9030 or mwalker@cotton.org

UNITE HERE – Mark Levinson, Chief Economist

(212) 332-9382 or mlevin@unitehere.org

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