Eight more categories come under US quota: Chinese textiles
By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
KARACHI, May 19: The United States on Wednesday slapped quotas on eight more categories of textiles and apparels originating from China thereby bring the total number of categories under restrictive ceiling during last five days to eleven. Ever since the start of quota free regime from January 1, 2005, there had been growing concern amongst the US and the European Union member states that thousands of jobs are at stake as domestic industry was unable to compete with imported textile goods from China.
The EU has also imposed quotas on a number of apparel and textile imports from China thereby giving a warning single to other nations producing textiles and clothing. The new batch of Chinese textile goods facing restrictions are men’s and boy’s cotton and man-made fabric shirts, man-made fabric trousers, man-made fabric knit shirts and blouses and combed cotton yarn.
All these categories could become a boon for Pakistani exporter for a short term period but could turn out to be a similar case if no mechanism is evolved to check unbridled exports to US or for that matter even to EU, a leading exporter told Dawn.
“We are feeling that the US is already working on anti-dumping measures to check imports from Pakistan and India because imports from both the countries have already registered sizeable increase and exporters are indulging in price cut,” another exporter said.
However, US retailers are quite critical of the move and apprehend that it will raise prices in the domestic market, which would directly affect consumers. Just on Friday, the Bush administration re-imposed quotas on three categories of clothing imports from China –cotton trousers, cotton knit shirts and underwear.
The US commerce department committee, which took the decision, was of the opinion that these categories from China threatened to disrupt the domestic market as shipments from China surged since the end of global quotas on January 1, 2005.
As per the arrangements, the US has the power to set the limits on Chinese goods under an agreement that cleared the way for Beijing’s membership in the World Trade Organization in 2001.
The Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is reported to have said, “We are committed to enforcing our trade agreements to ensure that US companies get a fair deal as they compete in the global marketplace.”
However, Beijing took the matter seriously and blamed both the US and the EU for a situation which has been termed as “unfair.”
The first reaction came from Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai who said, “Once an agreement is reached, everybody has to abide by their commitment. Otherwise, there is no point in negotiating rules,” Bo said.
After the development, Pakistani exporters have also started feeling uncomfortable and are looking at the government for taking certain measures ahead of any such ugly move, which could damage country’s exports. “We would like the commerce ministry to take exporters into confidence and seek a joint strategy which could include adopting of Minimum Export Price (MEP) or any sort of mechanism which could help check unbridled exports otherwise it would result in quota restrictions or anti-dumping duty or both,” another exporter said.
