NTA welcomes WTO HK text with secure optimism

27 Dec '05

3 min read

National Textile Association (NTA) welcomes with guarded optimism the Draft Ministerial Programme released on December 18 in Hong Kong at the conclusion of the World Trade Organization Conference.

"As regards American textiles, the result is mixed," said NTA President Karl Spilhaus. "Llooking at three major areas of concern to NTA and the other textile industry representatives in Hong Kong and it appears with some success in two out of three."

NTA had identified as a high priority the goal of obtaining a ministerial text that allows for textile and apparel to be treated as a sector apart from other non-agricultural trade.

The general framework for liberalization of non-agricultural trade wills likely result in developed countries, such as the U.S., undertaking substantial reductions in tariffs while developing countries make only slight reductions and continue to drag their feet on reduction in non-tariff barriers.

A textile "sectoral" will recognize the important and unique issues in this sector and will be a possible vehicle for addressing true market access for U.S. textiles in other countries.

A sectoral for textiles will be consistent with earlier world trade talks, which treated textiles separately.

NTA also sought to limit the inclusion of textiles in the duty-free concession to least-developed countries (LDCs).

The final text calls for the U.S. and other developed countries to provide duty-free access to all product from all LDCs. Some of these LDCs, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia have substantial textile industries and are hardly "least developed" in the apparel sector.

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