U.S. terminates all textile safeguard investigations

U.S. terminates all textile safeguard investigations    The U.S. government, through the Commerce Department's Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), has terminated all 24 safeguard petition investigations covering 42 categories of textile and apparel products imported from China to the United States.
   The government's action was expected after the recent comprehensive bilateral textile agreement signed by the United States and China after prolonged negotiations.
   The safeguards that were terminated had been filed by the U.S. domestic textile and apparel industry. 'We recognize that this is an appropriate outcome at this time. The comprehensive agreement has superseded the safeguard petitions,' said Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), a group in Washington, D.C., that represents the interests of U.S. domestic textile producers.
   'We note, however, that the comprehensive bilateral agreement explicitly reserves the U.S. textile industry's right to pursue safeguard petitions as warranted in the future,' Tantillo explained.
   'As such, the U.S. industry will continue to monitor U.S. textile and apparel imports from China closely in the categories not covered by the agreement. We are prepared to file additional petitions in 2006 as meritorious cases develop,' he noted.