Chemical Engineering @ChemengFiles.Com

Trade groups from 17 countries are calling on the leaders of Congress and the Bush Administration to introduce a monitoring system for textile and clothing imports from China, once the entrance to the U.S. safeguards are to expire at the end of 2008. The groups want to work similar to the Textile Monitoring Program (TMP), which currently applies to imports from Vietnam.

Under this scheme, which expires in January 2009, the Government of USA preliminarily reviewed monthly import data in certain categories and, if evidence of any product that is entering to be sold at no real cost or less than those stipulated, begin An investigation for no income.

Trade associations requesting this extension of the Textiles Monitoring Program represent more than one million workers from Africa, Asia, South and North America. They demand that their rights of living is adversely affected by the elimination of the safeguards and in that moment is when things Chinese products, once these safeguards in more than 34 products are removed in January 2009. The groups say that since 2001, the Chinese have grown by 16% to 60% market share in USA, precisely in those categories where quotas have been eliminated and that exports grew at a rate of up to 400% to reach $ 32 billion.

He also claimed that when the safeguards were suspended in 2005, Chinese manufacturers lowered their prices up to 40% and increased its exports in a 600% winning re-imposition of safeguards. This achieved 63 grants awarded by the Chinese Government to textiles and garments, including last month's announcement of a reduction in taxes for the export of textiles.

The monitoring of imports from Vietnam towards USA has been used successfully since it joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007. The bi-annual review that takes place five product groups of Vietnam-shirts, pants, sweaters, underwear and swimwear clothing, which so far has shown no abnormalities and no cause for an anti-dumping.

The fear of an anti-dumping investigation has meant that importers of U.S. and chain stores do not request many orders from Vietnam. The importers and chain stores made known its concern in July to the House Appropriations Committee in regard to the proposed monitoring to China. They argue that the report on the extension to another year of monitoring to Vietnam, was admitted without consulting the industry.