Apparel group slams import monitoring plan

Apparel group slams import monitoring plan

Jones

   A major apparel association is urging Congress to reject language in its 2009 appropriations bill that would instruct the Commerce Department to monitor apparel imports from China and Vietnam.
   'There is absolutely no factual basis for such monitoring; it is nothing more than unjustified, WTO (World Trade Organization) inconsistent, useless protectionism, that won't bring a single job back to the United States' said Laura E. Jones, executive director of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel in a statement issued Tuesday.
   The 2009 appropriations bill includes a provision asserting that Congress 'expects' the Commerce Department 'to undertake apparel import monitoring, focusing on prices of imports from China and Vietnam and whether their state-run industries are illegally pricing products and dumping in the U.S. market.'
   Similar language was included in a House appropriations report last year.