Newsletter: March 2005  

U.S. Announces Textile Import Monitoring 

The Bush administration, faced with a flood of clothing and other textiles from China, will start special monitoring to keep track of imports. 

The new procedure would provide reports every other week on textile and apparel imports. Currently, the data for a given month are not available until six weeks after the month ends. 

The new monitoring system should be in place by the first week of April. The preliminary reports of textile and apparel imports will be posted every other week on a Web site that will be maintained by the Office of Textiles and Apparel, which is part of the department's International Trade Administration. 

The U.S. trade deficit climbed to $58.3 billion in January, the second-highest level on record, with the surge in textile and apparel shipments from China blamed for much of the increase. 

The U.S. textile and apparel industry, which has suffered heavy job losses for years because of competition from low-wage countries, has warned of further heavy losses unless shipments from China are limited.

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