U.S. House of Representatives calls for monitoring measures on Chinese textiles and apparel

A few days ago, 75 members of the U.S. House of Representatives jointly sent a letter to President Bush urging the government to implement monitoring measures for textiles and clothing imported from China starting from January 1, 2009. The existing Sino-US textile agreement will expire at the end of 2008. The above-mentioned lawmakers said that the necessary monitoring measures are to deal with “the likely surge in imports of China’s subsidized products.” The Bush administration is currently implementing similar import monitoring measures against Vietnam and regularly reviews the data to decide whether to initiate anti-dumping procedures on the monitored products.
​
Similar to the letter submitted by textile and garment industry organizations from 17 countries in August 2008, the above-mentioned letter from the lawmakers also emphasized that continued restrictions on Chinese imports are necessary to protect employment, not only for the United States but also for Africa. The same is true for countries in Central America and the Middle East that “rely on exports to the United States.” The letter stated that China is preparing to monopolize the U.S. market after the quotas are cancelled, and said that in those categories where quotas are currently not implemented, China has already occupied 60% of the market share by virtue of “significant low-price competition methods”, and the Chinese government’s textile There are 63 separate subsidies for the industry, some of which were implemented after the China-U.S. agreement was reached. The letter determined that “China is a leader in violating U.S. trade laws” and therefore “the need for tougher enforcement of China’s trade has never been more urgent.”
​
The letter believes that a monitoring system can also play a role in inhibiting the use of anti-dumping measures. According to Vietnam’s experience, monitoring measures will standardize the pricing behavior of textiles and clothing, making dumping impossible. “The same reason is more urgent for China,” because China’s massive support for its textile industry has been fully documented.