Sino-US textile talks fail to yield any result (Reuters) Updated: 2005-09-01 07:13
U.S. and Chinese officials have now met four times since Washington imposed
emergency curbs, known as safeguards, in May to restrain a burst of Chinese
exports unleashed by the abolition of global textile quotas on January 1.
Meanwhile, U.S. industry groups still were waiting to hear if the Bush
administration would unilaterally restrict more imports of Chinese clothing
using the special mechanism allowed under World Trade Organization rules.
The Bush administration had been scheduled to decide by Wednesday on industry
requests for emergency restrictions on six more categories of Chinese clothing
and textiles, including bras, sweaters, dressing gowns and knit fabric.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Commerce Department still had not
announced any decision on those requests.
U.S. textiles groups said they were prepared to file more safeguard requests
next week, if no deal is reached.
The five Bush administration officials who comprise the interagency textile
committee responsible for making the decision apparently are all in Beijing for
the negotiations, industry officials said.
