US, China textile talks fail
15 Oct 2005
Beijing: China and the United States failed on Thursday to find a formula to regulate China's booming textile shipments. The two nations have to reach an agreement before the end of the year, and now the stalemate means US retailers will face uncertainty about just how much they will be able to import from China until the end of 2008, when curbs on its textile exports will lapse.
"We
have not come to an agreement that meets the needs of
our domestic manufacturers and retailers," David
Spooner, the special textile negotiator in the US Trade
Representative's Office, said in a statement after two
days of talks.
This was the fourth round of face-to-face meetings between the two sides.
China has seen sales of clothes to the United States jump 75 per cent in the first seven months to nearly US$10.5bn.
Under
China's accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001,
Washington can impose "safeguards" until the
end of 2008 if China's textiles are shown to be disrupting
the US market. These cap growth in exports at 7.5 per
cent a year.
The United States has already imposed safeguard curbs on imports of Chinese shirts, trousers, bras, underwear, yarn and other textile and clothing products.