The US right to impose safeguards on textile and clothing imports from China is contained in Paragraph 242 of the Report of the Working Party on the Accession of China to the WTO.
In 1995, the WTO began implementing a ten-year phaseout of worldwide quotas on textile and apparel products. When China joined the WTO in 2002, it was allowed to join the quota phaseout in lockstep, giving it a three-year transition period compared to ten years for the rest of the world. China agreed to be subject to textile and clothing safeguards through the end of 2008 in return for receiving the reduced transition period.
Since January 2001, US textile and apparel manufacturing employment has fallen from 1,047,200 to 666,500 - a loss of 380,700 jobs (36.4 percent of total employment in the industry).
In 2005, the US textile and apparel manufacturing sector is on pace to lose another 50,000 jobs.
American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition
marketing@alchempro.com
