U.S. Industry Files New Petitions

to Limit Textile and Clothing Imports from China 

After 31 U.S. textile plant closures in 2005 and China’s failure to agree to a reasonable comprehensive textile deal with the United States after four rounds of bilateral consultations, U.S. textile industry and labor union officials announced that they had filed four (4) new safeguard petitions covering five (5) categories on  21 September 2005. 

A fifth round of bilateral consultations between the United States and was held on  September 26 and 27 also ended without reaching any consensus. 

The new petitions cover the following products: 

Safeguard Category

2005 China Increase
Jan. to July

%  Change

YTD China Share of U.S. Import

7/2004

7/2005

Apparel

443 – wool suits

+ 680,075 suits

+   890 %

2 %

16 %

634/635 – mmf* coats

+ 44 million coats

+   563 %

7 %

36 %

Textiles
226-cheesecloth

+ 14 million square meters

+   263 %

16 %

47 %

619-polyester filament fabric  

+ 31 million square meters

+ 1034 %

2 %

17 %

* mmf = man-made fiber 

# All U.S. textile and apparel import data statistics were obtained from Otexa on September 20, 2005. 

Facts on New Safeguard Filings 

The combined value of total U.S. imports for the five categories covered by the September 22 announcement for year-to-date 2005 is $1.78 billion, with imports from China accounting for $487 million of that total. 

The value of the Chinese imports covered by the petitions amounts to less than 4 percent of the $13.1 billion in textile and apparel imports from China and less than 1 percent of the $50.6 billion in imports from the world (including China) in 2005. 

In terms of the $130 billion in total U.S. imports of all goods from China in 2005, these petitions affect only 0.4 percent of that trade.

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