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US barred from limiting China textiles
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-01 10:42
The Bush administration is being temporarily barred from imposing new limits
on imported clothing and textile products flowing into the United States from
China.
The action by a federal court in New York comes as U.S. textile makers brace
for an even greater surge of Chinese apparel imports when decades-old, worldwide
quotas expire Saturday.
U.S. textile and clothing manufacturers, worried about more competition
coming from China, are seeking protections from the administration to limit
Chinese imports. Industry officials decried the action, saying it could further
hurt beleaguered U.S. factory jobs.
Importers of Chinese goods and the retailers that buy apparel and textiles
made in China hailed the judge's decision.
Judge Richard Goldberg of the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York
on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily bars the
administration from considering petitions seeking restrictions on imports of
clothing and textiles from China.
The U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, whose members
include J.C. Penney, Liz Claiborne and other retailers, sought the injunction.
The Bush administration opposed the group's request.
The issue of trade with China has been politically touchy for the
administration. Democrats have accused President Bush of not doing enough to
protect American workers from unfair foreign competition.
The administration has been pressing China to let its currency, the yuan, be
set in open markets. U.S. manufacturers claims Beijing's currency policies give
Chinese companies a big competitive advantage over U.S. companies.
Petitions seeking limits on Chinese textile and apparel imports are
permissible under a special provision of the agreement China signed to gain
entry into the World Trade Organization in late 2001. The United States can
impose temporary restrictions on such imports from China if those products are
threatening market disruptions.
The petitions seeking to restrict Chinese imports are reviewed by the
Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, or CITA, an interagency
group composed of officials of the departments of Commerce, State, Labor,
Treasury and the office U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
USTR declined to comment on the judge's decision. Messages seeking comment
were left for other members of the group which are defendants in the case.
Since October, the interagency group has accepted for consideration 12
requests for safeguards that allege the threat of market disruption by Chinese
textile imports, according to court documents. The group hasn't acted on those
requests, the court papers said.
The plaintiff in the case, the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and
Apparel, contended that panel's mere acceptance of these requests have thrown a
wrench in some companies' 2005 business plans. Some canceled orders in China and
scrambled to find factories elsewhere, according to court documents.
Goldberg wrote that the plaintiff "raised sufficiently serious and difficult
questions" to warrant a preliminary injunction.
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