CITA Announces Self-Initiation of Safeguard Quota Proceedings for China Cats 338/339, 347/348 and 352/652
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a press release announcing its decision to initiate safeguard proceedings to determine whether imports of certain Chinese origin textile and apparel products are contributing to the disruption of the U.S. market.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
According to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, "this decision is the first step in a process to determine whether the U.S. market for these products is being disrupted and whether China is playing a role in that disruption," adding that "this Administration is committed to enforcing our trade agreements and to providing assistance to our domestic textile and apparel industry consistent with our international rights and obligations."
Self-Initiation for China Cats 338/339, 347/348, and 352/652
The press release states that the products subject to review will be cotton knit shirts and blouses (cat 338/339), cotton trousers and shorts (cat 347/348), and cotton and manmade fiber underwear (352/652).
According to the press release, the decision was made to initiate this review based on substantial increases in imports of these products from China over the first quarter of this year, following the removal of textile quotas under the World Trade Organization (WTO) as of January 1. Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2005 show imports from China in these categories growing by approximately 1,250%, 1,500% and 300%, respectively, relative to the same quarter of last year.
The press release states that the next step will be for CITA to publish a Federal Register notice that will launch a 30-day period during which interested parties and stakeholders may submit comments on each product subject to safeguard proceedings.
CITA press release (dated 03/04/05) available at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/selfinitChina.pdf
Preliminary import data (from new expedited monitoring system), available at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/prelimadmin/prelimdata.htm
(See future issue of ITT for BP summary of this preliminary import data.)