Textile Industry wants cap on China's Imports

The U.S. textile industry has formally asked the Bush administration to place a cap on China's shipments of textile items to the United States. These items include shirts, trousers, sheets and many other textile products. The textile industry fears that a huge flood of Chinese imports could cost thousands of American jobs. A 30 year old system governing global commerce in textile and apparel expires on January 1, 2005. This move by the textile industry is made in hopes of holding off the impact of great changes in international trade rules. The industry fears that China could take more than $400 billion in the global textile market. The petition that the U.S. industry filed would limit the annual growth of Chinese imports to as little as 7.5%. This petition is backed by the textile and apparel industries in as many as 51 countries, who all fear China's competition. Critics of the petition see this as a desperate ploy by a dying industry. Critics feel that China is not the problem, but the industry itself is the problem. The U.S. textile industry filed at this time so that the initial vote would take place on November 1st, the day before a sensitive Presidential election in the United States. A final ruling will not come until January.