Global textile alliance calls for EU and U.S. safeguards against China

Global textile alliance calls for EU and U.S. safeguards against China    The Global Alliance for Fair Textile Trade (GAFTT), a Geneva-based association of 96 textile trade groups in 54 countries, has endorsed the filing of 12 textile and clothing safeguard petitions with the European Union by Euratex, a non-profit trade organization that promotes the European textile and apparel industry.
   The Global Alliance also urged the United States to self-initiate similar safeguards against China. 'With increases of imports from China of more than 100, 500, and even 1,000 percent in key textile and clothing categories to the European Union and the United States, industries in developing countries are at severe risk from being overwhelmed in the marketplace in a matter of months by China,' said Ziya Sukun, executive director of the ITKIB Association of New York, a trade association representing Turkish textile and clothing interests.
   GAFTT members have endorsed the Istanbul Declaration, which calls for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to examine whether textile and apparel quotas that ended Jan. 1 should be restored and remain in effect until at least Dec. 31, 2007.