Thaw in Sino-US textile trade disputes

18 Aug '05

2 min read

After a series of talks, the US and Chinese negotiators claim to have broken ice, and see a solution to the trade dispute that has been raging between the two countries since couple of months.

Chinese side led by foreign trade department official Sun Jiwen and the US team led by David Spooner concluded their meeting in San Francisco, a few hour back.

Spooner informed that a comprehensive agreement to limit imports of Chinese clothing and textiles into the United States was in the offing.

Since the expiry of the textile quotas begining this year, the US textile and apparel makers were at their wits end as they saw a veritable surge in Chinese imports.

Certain textile categories recorded up to 1500 percent rise in imports from China to the US.

Manufacturers have been shuttering plants all across the US for the last couple of years as they could not withsatnd competition from cheap Chineses clothing that seems to flood the country.

Situation further worsened with a balooning trade deficit with China that reached a record $162 billion last year, and is currently 32 percent above last year's rate. All due to a 58 percent jump in clothing and textile imports from China.

While manufacturers cry hoarse over the Chinese import surges, the apparel and textile importer of US are seek ending of embargo on Chinese imports.

China and the US have a lot at stake as negotiations go on. It is feared that $6 billion rise, annually in the cost of clothing American is estimated which works out to about $20 per Amrican consumer in case Chinese apparel and textile imports are halted.

Meantime, Spooner said that US insists on a deal that would go right through 2008. A proposal covering all products now protected by safeguard agreements in addition to any categories that were may disrupt local market in the future from Chinese imports was being worked out.

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