Washington DC) Following the decision of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn the preliminary injunction against seven industry “threat” cases filed late last year, NCTO President Cass Johnson issued the following statement:

“The Court has ruled that the industry’s seven initial threat cases may now move forward and we are asking for the government to move immediately to render final decisions on these cases.   The Court’s ruling includes three categories which the government self-initiated safeguard investigations based on market disruption (cotton trousers, cotton knit shirts, underwear) earlier this year.

Both official and preliminary import data have borne out the industry’s argument in filing threat-based cases that China posed a real and immediate threat to U.S. plants and workers.  In just the first two months of the year, imports from China in the six threat-based apparel categories from China increased by 179 million garments and increased by 546 percent.  During the first three months of the year, more than 17,000 textile and apparel jobs have been lost and 18 textile plants have closed.   

In the cotton trousers category, preliminary data for March show imports from China up nearly 1,600 percent for the first three months of the year.

Chinese imports are climbing dramatically every day.  The threat has been confirmed and the industry is now losing jobs and closing plants because of China’s immense surge.  With the lifting of the Court injunction, the government has an opportunity to demonstrate to the industry that it recognizes the severity of this surge and is moving swiftly to address it.   We urge CITA to convene quickly and impose safeguards. “