Trade court judge sharply questions CITA lawyer

Trade court judge sharply questions CITA lawyer    At the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York Monday, Senior Judge Richard W. Goldberg asked Justice Department attorney Michael Panzera why the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) had, beginning in October, accepted threat-based petitions from U.S. domestic textile manufacturers on apparel products from China that were under quota, an action which contravened rules published by CITA in May 2003.
   'One might think that CITA ought to be a little bit consistent,' Goldberg said at one point during a hearing on a request from a group of apparel importers for an injunction to stop CITA's acceptance of such petitions.
   'Your Honor, there is no inconsistency,' replied Panzera, who asserted CITA had broad authority from Congress to act as it wished, even if that meant changing its prior rules without notification.
   Goldberg asked Brenda Jacobs, an attorney for the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA), which filed the lawsuit, for 'hard evidence of hardship' that CITA's acceptance of threat-based petitions might have caused apparel importers. Jacobs promised to send the court affidavits from affected importers within two days.
   Repeatedly, Goldberg told Panzera CITA's stance toward importers 'might be characterized as holding a gun to their head, but not pulling the trigger — just yet.'
   CITA is an interagency panel comprising representatives from the departments of State, Treasury, Commerce and Labor, and from the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The committee does not hold public meetings, nor does it reveal how its members vote. Traditionally, CITA has acted to protect the interests of U.S. domestic textile and apparel manufacturers.
   The recent safeguard petitions from American 'domestics' are based on predicted, if unproved, threats of likely market disruption in the United States by products of Chinese origin after apparel and textile quotas end at midnight Dec. 31.