U.S. textile manufacturers want further restrictions on Chinese imports

U.S. textile manufacturers want further restrictions on Chinese imports    The National Textile Association, the National Council of Textile Manufacturers, and the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition are going to ask the Bush administration to curb a flood of Chinese imports expected next year after quotas on textiles and apparel expire Dec. 31.
   The three organizations will jointly petition the White House for further restrictions on China's imports, which are already subject to a series of safeguards after quotas expire.
   'If we don't get action from the Bush administration, the job losses next year for the domestic textile association are going to be catastrophic,' Karl Spilhaus, president of the National Textile Association, based in Boston, told Shippers' News Wire.
   Earlier in 2004, the Bush administration rejected a similar request made by 130 members of Congress. Now, closer to the presidential election, the White House has said it would consider the new appeal, which must include 'sufficient specific data as to whether imports are disrupting or threaten to disrupt the U.S. market,' according to a Commerce Department spokesman.
   The textile groups' latest appeal 'is an obvious political ploy,' said Brenda A. Jacobs, an attorney in Washington, D.C., for the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA).
   'The quotas will expire on Dec. 31 at midnight. Under an agreement that the U.S. has signed with the World Trade Organization, there is no way to put the brakes on at the last minute,' said Laura Jones, executive director of USA-ITA.
   Spilhaus said, 'it isn't just that the quotas are ending. Our point is that we feel additional safeguards are necessary to preserve our domestic textile industry,' he explained.
   The Democratic campaign of Sen. John Kerry is backing the textile groups, being as aware as the Bush administration of votes in Southern textile-producing states.