US seeks long-term textile pact with China
(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-12 06:10

The Bush administration, struggling to deal with America's surging trade deficit with China, announced Thursday it would begin negotiations aimed at broad restrictions on imports of Chinese clothing and textiles, the Associted Press reported.

A Chinese shopkeeper arranges textiles in a store in Shanghai in this February 24, 2005 file photo. [Reuters]

Critics said such new limits could cost American consumers billions of dollars in higher clothing costs. Supporters said a comprehensive deal imposing limits on Chinese imports was needed to protect a U.S. textile and apparel industry that has been left reeling with the expiration of global quotas at the start of this year.

The office of U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman announced that a U.S. negotiating team would travel to San Francisco for talks next Tuesday and Wednesday with a delegation from China. 

David Spooner, the administration's special textile negotiator, will lead the U.S. delegation, which also will include officials from the departments of Commerce, State, Labor and Treasury.

"Our aim next week is to seek a long-term solution," he said in a statement.

The Bush administration has blocked billions of dollars of shirts, pants and other clothing from China since May under a special textile "safeguard" provision that Beijing accepted when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

U.S. textile groups and lawmakers have pressed the White House to negotiate a comprehensive deal that would restrict clothing imports from China through the end of 2008, when the safeguard mechanism expires.

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