WASHINGTON — A dozen members of the National Textile Association lobbied the Bush administration and Capitol Hill lawmakers Tuesday, renewing their call for the U.S. to impose more curbs on Chinese imports of textiles and apparel.
The push is gaining urgency for the NTA and others representing domestic textile mills, who fear inexpensive Chinese imports will be unleashed on the U.S. market Jan. 1 because of the elimination of quotas restricting textile and apparel trade among World Trade Organization members. China has 12.4 percent of the U.S. imported apparel market, up 33 percent from a year ago, which partly reflects early removal of some of the quotas.
Boston-based NTA is seeking support at the WTO for a three-year delay in the quota phaseout and wants the Department of Commerce to streamline the process for the U.S. textile industry to petition the government for new quotas on Chinese imports.
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“Continuation of quotas would be one of the few things the government can do to stop the massive erosion of jobs from this country,” said John Bishop, vice president of mill sales at Pendleton Woolen Mills, based in Portland, Ore.
Bishop and other NTA members acknowledged the difficulty in a presidential election year of convincing the Bush administration to support the so-called Istanbul Declaration, which calls for a three-year delay in eliminating global quotas. It has been signed by textile associations from 34 countries.
The document, signed April 1 in Istanbul, Turkey, has not been endorsed by any government. Supporters say it is needed to stem the loss of some 30 million textile and apparel jobs in the developing world alone.
The Bush administration has imposed one-year quotas on three categories of Chinese textiles and apparel, which is permitted under China’s agreement to join the WTO. The NTA said proving that certain import categories have surged is unnecessarily complicated.
“We would like to have [the process] streamlined so it would be easy to file, rather than spending 18 months waiting while more damage is being done to the industry,” said Jonathan Stevens, NTA’s vice chairman, who is president of Ames Textile Corp.
NTA officials reiterated their opposition to the negotiated Central American Free Trade Agreement in meetings with Undersecretary of Commerce Jim Leonard, government textile negotiator David Spooner and staff from the influential House Ways & Means Committee, which has oversight of trade. CAFTA contains provisions for the use of some non-Central American fabric, which domestic textile officials say would wipe out free-trade benefits for U.S. mills.
CAFTA countries and apparel importers want to secure the region as a favorable place to source in advance of the 2005 WTO quota elimination. Central American trade ministers are here this week pressing their case for immediate action with the administration and on Capitol Hill.
At an International Trade Commission hearing Tuesday to discuss the Dominican Republic being added to CAFTA, Jim Jacobsen, vice chairman of Kellwood Co., said apparel orders are already leaving Central America, which accounts for just less than 16 percent of all apparel imported into the U.S.
“You will see a decline in the region in 2005 in the first half, but with approval of [CAFTA], business in the region could pick up in the second half of next year and get back to the level it is today,” Jacobsen said.
— With contributions from Kristi Ellis