Bush administration wants more data on China apparel imports

Bush administration wants more data on China apparel imports    The U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, said Tuesday, 'we'll see what the facts tell us' before the Bush administration proceeds with any safeguards to restrict imports of textiles and apparel from China.
   According to Reuters, Gutierrez told reporters after a speech on American trade policy that the safeguard process 'will be driven by facts.'
   U.S. domestic textile producers, who have asked the Bush administration for immediate, self-initiated safeguards on Chinese apparel imports expressed alarm at Gutierrez's remarks. They fear the White House may defer such restrictions until later in 2005, when most of the year's imports from China will have already been shipped.
   'While we're glad the safeguard process will be driven by facts, we believe the facts clearly are self-evident at this point,' said Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), in Washington, D.C.
   Tantillo said 373,800 domestic textile jobs have been lost since January 2001. 'That's 35.7 percent of the entire U.S. textile and apparel manufacturing sector,' he said. 'In the first two months of this year alone, 11,400 jobs have been lost.'
   Chinese textile and apparel exports to the United States 'in several sensitive categories are up in excess of 100, 500 and even 1,000 percent since the expiration of all quotas on Jan. 1,' AMTAC said in a statement.
   'What is needed now is action. More and more jobs are being lost on a daily basis due to the government's failure to immediately self-initiate safeguards,' Tantillo said.
   Late in 2004, U.S. importers of Chinese apparel were granted an injunction by the U.S. Court of International Trade that blocked the Bush administration from considering petitions from domestic manufacturers to restrict imports in 20 different textile categories, based on a perceived threat that shipments from China would increase when global quotas ended.
   That injunction means petitions filed in 2004 'are pretty much dead,' said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations.
   The Commerce Department has created a monitoring system for imports after the U.S. textile industry requested quicker access to trade data from China. After the new system starts releasing information in April, beginning with figures from the first quarter of 2005, Johnson said the domestic textile industry will file a new set of petitions. 'I think the facts will be a slam dunk for safeguards,' he added.