US groups pile on pressure…

As a further round of US/China talks on an overall textile/apparel agreement was announced for September 26-27, US textile lobbyists put more pressure on negotiators. On September 22, petitions were filed with the
Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) for Safeguard quotas on:
• cheesecloth (category 226)
• men’s and boys’ wool suits (category 443)
• lightweight polyester filament fabric (category 619)
• manmade fibre coats and jackets (category 634/635)

These added to similar petitions filed September 14 on:
cotton and manmade fibre woven shirts (category 340/640), cotton trousers (category 347/348),
cotton and manmade fibre bras (category 349/649), cotton and manmade fibre underwear
(category 352/652), manmade fibre knit shirts (category 638/639), manmade fibre trousers
(category 647/648), combed cotton yarn (category 301), synthetic filament fabric (category 620) .

These are in addition to the ten petitions left undecided when CITA imposed Safeguard quotas on filament fabric and MMF/cotton bras on August 31. The 20 petitions now under consideration are all due for determination by mid-November, with four decisions due by October 1 Auggie Tantillo, Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), said Thursday that the domestic industry “will keep filing safeguard petitions until all categories of interest to us are covered or the Chinese agree to a reasonable comprehensive agreement.”