The action, covering cotton knit shirts and blouses, trousers, and cotton and man-made-fiber underwear, continues of a string of similar import-safeguard cases opened since global textile quotas were lifted at the start of the year.
"This decision is the first step in a process to determine whether the US market for these products is being disrupted and whether China is playing a role in that disruption," said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. "This Administration is committed to enforcing our trade agreements and to providing assistance to our domestic textile and apparel industry consistent with our international rights and obligations."
An international trade pact reached in 1994 required governments to lift textile quotas. In the agreement that allowed China to enter the World Trade Organization, the US negotiated the right to limit textile imports from China through 2008 if a flood of imports disrupts markets.
China, with its cheap labor, is expected to dominate the world apparel market within just a few years.
Commerce said it launched the latest investigation after "substantial increases in imports of these products from China over the first quarter of this year."
Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2005 show imports from China grew by approximately 1,250% for cotton knit shirts, 1,500% for trousers, and 300% for underwear, relative to the same quarter of last year, according to the Commerce Department. (Dow Jones)
