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Exporter's body protests US safeguards on 3 textile products

30
Dec '08

The China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce has published a statement on its web site, saying that Chinese textile and garment exporters strongly protest against the safeguards implemented by the United States on three categories of Chinese textile products.

Disregarding strong opposition from China's textile and garment industry and repeated representations from the Chinese side, the U.S. government decided to implement safeguards on three categories of Chinese-made textile products (knit fabrics, brassieres and robes) on November 18.

After U.S. government announced on August 18, 2008 that the government has accepted the application of safeguards put forward by its four industry associations to re-impose safeguards on three types of Chinese textiles, the chamber submitted comments and representations to the U.S Implementation Committee on Textile Agreements.

China listed a large number of facts and figures in representing that the three types of Chinese textile exports to the United States did not cause "market disruption" and that China's export growth has no direct or indirect relationship with the industrial recession in the United States.

But the U.S side, chose to ignore these basic facts and disregarding the views of Chinese side, still decided to re-impose regulations on three types of Chinese textiles, which not only runs counter to paragraph 242 of the Working Group Report of China's accession to the WTO.

This move, adds the chamber, by the United States goes against the fundamental purpose and spirit of the World Trade Organization, runs counter to liberalization trend of world textile and apparel trade and has a negative impact on Sino-US trade relations and international textile and apparel trade.

Chinese textile and garment industry is one of China's major traditional industries and employs more than 15 million employees and provides indirect employment to over 100 million other people including farmers who are involved in cultivation of cotton as well people connected with other activities in the textile and apparel trade.

The importance of textile and garment exports to China is no less as the importance of agricultural products to the United States. The restriction on the three categories of Chinese textiles re-imposed by the United States does not only cause adverse impact on normal Sino-US textile trade in the three textile products.

It also seriously harms the fundamental interests of Chinese textile and garment export enterprises, the majority of U.S. consumers, importers, distributors, retailers, suppliers of textile raw materials and will cast a shadow on long-term trade development between the two countries.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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