Newsletter: January 2006  

China Companies Bid for Textile Export Quotas to US

Qualified textile enterprises in China joined the bidding for export quotas on 21 categories of textiles to the United States for year 2006 on early December 2005. The competition was very heated. The bid result released on 10 December 2005 shown that quota was allocated to 3,734 textile enterpri ses. The final prices on most textile categories were much higher than the minimum bid prices.  (To view full list of US quota bid result list, please browse MKMA homepage.)

After seven rounds of talks, the United States and China in November signed a three-year agreement on textile trade, imposing quotas on Chinese textile products but clearing a major obstacle to bilateral trade.

A total of 21 types of clothing and textiles have been placed under the import restrictions. The agreement provides for a progressive increase in imports of major textiles and apparel products from China -- by 10 to 15% in 2006, 12.5 to 16% in 2007, and 15 to 17% in 2008.  

China has set aside 30% of US quotas for public bidding. The rest will be allocated to exporters based on their performance in the past year.

Yan Haiping, an export business manager, said the company believed bidding was important, although he knew US quotas would be mainly achieved from performance-based allocation.

Minimum bid levels range from 0.1 yuan (12 US cents) to 1 yuan per 1,000 kilograms and from 0.2 yuan per dozen to 12 yuan per dozen, depending on the product.  

After companies get a quota, they can sign export contracts with importers in the United States.

Bid price to US Textile Quota Year 2006

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