The US House Of Representatives Asked The Government To Cancel The Quota Of Chinese Textile Products.

In response to the lifting of the quota limit for textile products in January 1, 2005, the United States disrupted the US domestic market in response to the lifting of the quota quota for textiles in April 2005. In April 2005, a number of textile defense measures were investigated and quota measures were taken. After 7 bilateral consultations, the two sides reached an agreement in November of the same year and signed the memorandum of understanding on textiles and clothing trade, aiming at the restriction on the 21 categories of textiles and clothing exported to the United States, with the restriction period from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2008.

Because of the appreciation of the renminbi, the rising cost of labor and raw materials, and the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, the market demand slowed down. In 2008, China's exports to us textiles were far below the US limit.

According to statistics (from August 5, 2008 to August 5, 2008), the 21 categories of Chinese textile and apparel quotas for export to the United States were not as good as those of last year. For example, the customs clearance rate of the American hot cotton knitted shirts (category 338/339) was only 38% (64.6% at the end of August last year), and the rate of customs clearance for cotton trousers (category 347/348) was only 47.1% (up to 72% at the end of August last year).

In addition, the United States recently used the mechanism of returning textile and clothing to China. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce and the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, the United States announced its notification of the return of Chinese textile garments by up to 12 times in the first 4 months of this year through its consumer product safety commission.

Furthermore, China's Ministry of Commerce announced the second tendering agreement for textile products exported to the United States in 2008. The bid manufacturers accounted for 76.6% of the bid qualification manufacturers and 7.8 percentage points lower than the first tenders, indicating that the decline in US exports affected the enthusiasm of Chinese textile and garment enterprises to apply for quotas.

It is learnt that Scott Quesenberry, the textile representative of the US trade representative, participated in the Prime Source Forum held in Hongkong in early April 2008, and told the participants that the US restrictions on Chinese textile products had not been followed up by the original agreement and that it would end at the end of 2008.

According to the US Inside US-China Trade July 23rd, Charles Rangel, the chairman of the US House of Representatives, said that the quota restrictions on Chinese textile products will be abolished in December 31, 2008, which will have an impact on the textile industry and some textile exporting countries.

According to the US textile industry data, China's textile products will suddenly increase after the cancellation of the quota restrictions of 21 categories of Chinese textile products, which will impact the US textile industry and the United States Tariff free textile partner countries (Kampuchea, Bangladesh, etc.).

The National Council of Textile Organization (NCTO) has urged the chairman of the board to request the US government to take countermeasures; the US House of Representatives annual committee will respond to the proposals before the end of this session.

At present, the direction of the proposal will take administrative measures, such as the adoption of the 421st defense clause of the Trade Law (including the introduction of sixteenth "specific product defense provisions"), or the introduction of anti-dumping duties and countervailing duty equalization measures to prevent the large increase in Chinese textile products.

China believes that if the United States wants to continue to implement quotas, there will be no legal basis for it. If new measures are to be taken, new legal basis should be put forward and consensus can be reached through consultation between the two governments.