Textile Industry Demands Action on China Trade Policy

In a press release issued late last week it was reported that officers from six of the largest trade associations representing the combined U.S. textile and fiber industries met in Washington, D.C., and unanimously approved an aggressive, coordinated lobbying campaign designed to ensure the industry?s survival.

The initial goal of the campaign is to persuade the U.S. government to implement the special textile China safeguard in an early and effective way to moderate the massive surge of Chinese exports. The groups released a report from the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, available at http://www.atmi.org/ on the internet, showing that unless the government acts, China will gain control of between 65 and 75 percent of the U.S. apparel market when quotas on Chinese imports are removed on Jan. 1, 2005, and will destroy the U.S. textile and apparel industries.

They reported that from March 2002 to March 2003 ?the U.S. government has stood by while China?s textile and apparel exports to the United States have surged 140 percent, the biggest increase in history.? During the same one-year period, the U.S. textile industry closed more than 50 plants and more than 40,000 textile workers lost their jobs. In addition, the U.S. government has refused to move against China?s illegal currency regime that gives its exports a 40-percent price advantage over U.S manufactured goods.

The associations represented were: American Fiber Manufacturers Association, Inc., American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, American Textile Manufacturers Institute, American Yarn Spinners Association, National Cotton Council of America and National Textile Association.

Staff contact: Rita Kourlis Samuelson, ext. 29.



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