Thousands of miles and the Pacific Ocean are not the only things that separate China from the United States. The two nations are also world's apart regarding a comprehensive agreement to stem China's surging exports of low-cost clothing to the United States.
On September 1, the Bush Administration announced that it was re-imposing import quotas on two types of Chinese clothing and textiles: fabric made with synthetic filament threads as well as bras, girdles, panty girdles and corsets in response to a surge in shipments to the United States that have battered US manufacturers of such products like a tsunami. The Administration also announced it was extending until October 1 a deadline for making decisions in four other cases covering sweaters, robes, knit fabric and wool trousers. The delay is an effort to pressure the Chinese to accept comprehensive limits or risk even tighter growth limits.
The move has only intensified trade tensions between the two nations. Negotiators had hoped to strike a deal that could be blessed by China's President Hu Jintao and President George Bush by the time they met at the White House last week. But Cass Johnson, president of the US National Council of Textile Organizations, recently told Reuters that negotiators had not even narrowed their differences during their two days of talks leading up to the White House meeting.
"People thought there was a good chance of an agreement coming out of these meetings, but it's clear the Chinese government was not interested in moving off its position -- and neither was the US government," said Johnson, who was also present as one of a number of US industry lobbyists tracking the talks in Beijing.
Manufacturers of US-made clothing and textiles report that their business across all categories has been severely disrupted by the surge in Chinese imports since the global quotas were lifted on January 1, 2005. They claim this has resulted in the loss of 26,000 US jobs and the closure of 19 textile plants.
During the first six months of this year, the United States saw Chinese-made textile exports to the United States surge 97% to $7.4 billion, alarming textile-producing states and heightening wider fears about the ever-increasing trade deficit the United States already has with China. Last year the United States experienced a record $162 billion trade deficit with China, the largest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.
According to the terms under which China was admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States government has the right to re-impose quotas known as "safeguards" that limit import growth in covered categories to 7.5% per year.
"The US textile industry will file as many safeguard cases as it takes to halt these job-killing trade practices," says Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition.
US and Chinese officials have now met four times since Washington imposed emergency curbs, known as safeguards, in May to restrain a burst of Chinese exports unleashed by the abolition of global textile quotas on January 1. The US government already has safeguards in place on cotton trousers, man-made fiber trousers, cotton shirts, man-made fiber shirts, men's and boys cotton and man-made fiber woven shirts, cotton and man-made fiber underwear, socks, and combed cotton yarn. The US government also has accepted for review six additional safeguard cases covering curtains, socks, woven blouses, skirts, nightwear and swimwear. Decisions on these cases are pending this fall.
Johnson said US textile manufacturers had held off requesting protection in these and even more categories in the expectation that last week's talks would yield progress. "So now we will begin filing new safeguard petitions next week on additional categories," he says.
A number of US lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would impose across-the-board tariffs of 27.5% on Chinese imports as retaliation for what American manufactures believe is C
