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Bush administration faces "litmus test" on Chinese textile dilemma

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer
August 17, 2003

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Over the next several months, the Bush administration could send its strongest signal yet about how it plans to handle conflicts between the struggling American textile industry and China, which it is trying to appease as a new favored trading partner.

On Monday, the administration will open a 60-day comment period to consider three petitions by textile companies asking it to restore quotas on certain Chinese clothing imports that were removed Jan. 1, 2001, as a condition of China's membership in the World Trade Organization.

After that, the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements - a coalition of five federal agencies - will vote on whether to impose the quotas for a year on knit fabrics, cotton and manmade fiber dressing gowns and robes, and cotton and manmade fiber brasseries.

Lobbyists for the textile industry contend the decision should be a slam-dunk. Those products were selected from the 29 where quotas have been removed because industry leaders figure they present the best proof that China's new trading freedom has disrupted the American market.

The real concern is how willing the administration will be to restore quotas when the rest of them are stripped in January 2005. If the three up for consideration now are stalled - not to mention rejected - textile companies fear a rocky future that could close more plants and push the industry nearer to collapse.

"We need to see whether they're serious about doing something," said Parks Shackelford, president of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute. "This will be the first test."

Last week, the committee agreed to consider the industry's request on the three categories, although it rejected its application for quotas on gloves because some woven gloves still have quotas through 2004. Textile lobbyists plan to submit a new, more specific glove request.

James C. Leonard III, CITA's chairman, said it could be November before a final decision is reached - a pace textile companies consider far too sluggish. However, he dismissed the idea that the committee's ruling on the three categories would be a test signaling how the administration will react in 2005 when Chinese imports could flood the American market.

"We will look at each case on its own merit," Leonard said. "These just happen to be the cases the industry chose to present."

Many lawmakers from Southern textile states have spoken out about the plight of the textile industry and how China's new trading powers could make matters worse. Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., called the petition a "litmus test as to whether laws will be enforced or ignored."

"China unfairly manipulates its currency, undermines international trade laws and undercuts U.S. workers with cheap labor," Ballenger said. "On a fair playing field, U.S. industries will remain competitive - but we don't have a fair playing field now."

Allen Gant Jr., chief executive officer of Burlington, N.C.-based Glen Raven Inc., said he fears the negative Chinese impact on a once-vibrant American industry could create more doubt about whether the United States has bartered away top trading status to too many countries.

"We're beginning to find out free trade is not the utopian idea they thought it was," Gant said.

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American Textile Manufacturers Institute:

The Mrs., in her role as industry writer, attended a conference with a Federal official who told everyone that one of the steps involved in resolving disputes between "American" companies and "Chinese" companies was asking the Chinese executives if there was any problem at all. If they said no, the matter was to be dropped.
W is selling us out for $200,000,000+ in bribe money (not that the Democrats would be any better).

Bush administration could send its strongest signal yet about how it plans to handle conflicts between the struggling American textile industry and China, which it is trying to appease as a new favored trading partner.

Well, there's the problem right there.