American
Manufacturing Trade Action
Coalition
National
Council of Textile
Organizations
Statement
of
U.S.
Textile Industry
on Shift
in
U.S. Policy on
Textiles in the
Doha
Round
June
14, 2006
For
Immediate Release
GENEVA,
SWITZERLAND - The U.S. textile industry welcomed
the statement by the U.S. government today at the
World Trade Organization (WTO) that the textiles
must receive "special consideration" in the
current round of world trade talks. The U.S.
shift in policy signals that textiles should no
longer be subsumed into the overall industrial
products classification where textiles is be
vulnerable to deep tariff cuts and a takeover of
world export markets by China.
Cass
Johnson, President of the National Council of
Textile Organizations (NCTO), stated, "The U.S.
statement today sends an important message that
the U.S. and other textile groups have long been
pressing for, namely, that the WTO recognize the
unique status of the textile sector and treat it
separately at the negotiating table. We are
grateful to Ambassador Schwab for making this
important shift. We are also pleased that many
countries from Latin
America,
Africa
and Europe
added their voices this morning to the need for a
separate textile sectoral."
Auggie
Tantillo, Executive Director of the American
Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC)
stated, "This is a much needed and positive step
in the right direction. At the same time,
the U.S.
government will need to insist that any final
agreement include special consideration for
textiles that do not leave this industry
vulnerable to government subsidized imports from
countries such as
China
and Vietnam."
The
industry noted that textiles is uniquely
vulnerable to China and Vietnam because the U.S.
industry does not have recourse to traditional
trade remedies such as dumping and countervailing
duty cases under WTO regarding apparel imports
from those countries. The only trade remedy
the industry can currently use is a textile
safeguard that expires on January
1, 2009.
According to global trade statistics covering
apparel markets in
Japan,
Australia,
the United
States
and the EU,
China
has gained a 70 percent share or higher share of
the apparel market in those product areas where
safeguards are not in place.
Textiles
and apparel are a vital export sector employing
tens of millions of workers in dozens of
developing and developed countries. The
combined
U.S.
textile sector employs nearly one million workers
in the United
States.
The U.S.
industry groups noted that the
U.S.
change in position makes it less likely that a
final WTO agreement will be a vehicle for handing
those jobs to
China.
The U.S.
shift came in response to new details that
Turkey
tabled on its proposal for a textile
sectoral.
The
U.S.
industry called on the
U.S.
government to build on its WTO statement by
working with
Turkey,
NAFTA, CAFTA and ANDEAN governments and trade
preference partners in Africa
and the Middle
East
to develop a proposal that ensures that already
developed export markets are allowed to prosper
and grow under a final WTO agreement.
The
industry also thanked its congressional supporters
that released a letter yesterday stating they
would actively oppose Administration trade
legislation if textile concerns were not taken
into account in WTO negotiations over the Doha
Round and
Vietnam's
WTO accession.
The
U.S.
textile sector is the third largest exporter of
textile products in the world with over $16
billion in exports last year.
CONTACTS:
AMTAC
Lloyd
Wood, Dir.
of Media Relations
(202)
452-0866 or lwood@amtac.org
NCTO
Cass
Johnson, President
+1
240
643-6618 or cjohnson@ncto.org
or
Missy
Branson, Vice President
(202)
822-8026 or mbranson@ncto.org
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