Official says WTO will not ?cave in? to domestic textile groups

Official says WTO will not æcave inÆ to domestic textile groups    Chiedu Osawke, director of the textile division of the World Trade Organization (WTO), told an association of apparel importers in New York on Tuesday the WTO will not be swayed from 'the letter and intent' of the decade-old Agreement on Textiles by increasingly strident demands from domestic textile manufacturers, principally in the United States and Europe, for some form of continued protection for textile and apparel products after existing quotas on such goods fall away on Jan. 1.
   'We are very much aware that this has become an issue of bitter contention,' Osawke said, 'and we have a responsibility to listen closely to the concerns of all of our member nations and deal with them as best we can.'
   Asked by Shippers' NewsWire if that meant the WTO might ultimately cave in to the domestics' demands if a protectionist backlash after the removal of most quotas should be stronger than anticipated, Osawke replied, 'absolutely not. Quotas are not coming back. The Agreement on Textiles cannot be reversed or compromised.'
   In particular, Turkey's proposal that self-triggering safeguard mechanisms should be permanently adopted by the WTO is a non-starter, Osawke noted.
   The WTO has estimated that, after quotas fall away, it will take two years for 'prices to return to normal levels,' he explained. For that reason, a group of WTO members has proposed a two-year moratorium on antidumping duties after Jan. 1, Osawke said.
   Asked if the WTO might consider a similar moratorium on safeguard mechanisms aimed at China, Osawke said, 'the antidumping proposal is only a suggestion from some of our members, not WTO policy. Some in Geneva think a breathing period' — which conceivably could be expanded to other protectionist measures, such as safeguards — 'would be useful, but that's currently only a matter of discussion.'
   Osawke spoke at the annual conference of the United States Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel (USA-ITA), a 16-year-old organization that now has 200 members.