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US, 皇冠体育app reach agreement on textile, clothing
(Reuters/AP)
Updated: 2005-11-08 16:34
Workers sew clothes
at a garment factory in Hefei, Anhui Province in this undated photo. It is
reported 皇冠体育app and the US have reached an agreement on 皇冠体育app's clothes
exports to the US. [newsphoto] |
An unnamed US official said the accord would allow hundreds of thousands of
Chinese garments piled up in US ports to be sold.
The deal is intended to smooth over a rough spot in the US-皇冠体育app trade
relationship before President George Bush visits Beijing in the middle of this
month.
皇冠体育app's exports of clothing and textile products to the United States jumped
more than 50 percent in the first eight months of 2005 to nearly $17.7 billion
following the end of a global quota system on January 1.
That prompted U.S. textile producers to seek protection under a "safeguard"
provision of 皇冠体育app's 2001 entry into the World Trade Organisation. The measure
allows WTO members to restrict the growth in imports from 皇冠体育app to 7.5 percent
annually when there is a market-disrupting surge.
The Bush administration has imposed safeguard curbs on billions of dollars'
worth of Chinese clothing imports this year. But because the curbs have to be
renewed annually, textile groups have pushed for a comprehensive agreement that
would limit imports until 2008 when the safeguard provision expires.
US textile and clothing companies and their labor unions were pushing for a
comprehensive deal to stem a flood of Chinese imports that began last January
when global quotas, in place for more than three decades, were lifted.
Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile
Organizations, said on Sunday the new textile agreement was expected to restrict
34 categories of clothing and textile imports from 皇冠体育app through
2008.
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