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US-China textile talks fail - US negotiator
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-13 14:09
China and the United States have failed to find a formula to deal with
China's booming textile exports, which have inflamed trade tensions between the
two countries, the chief US negotiator said on Thursday.
"We have not come to an agreement that meets the needs of our domestic
manufacturers and retailers," David Spooner, the special textile negotiator in
the US Trade Representative's Office, said in a statement.
It was the fourth round of face-to-face meetings since a surge in Chinese
exports unleashed by the end of global textile quotas on January 1 spread alarm
in the United States.
China, with modern factories and cheap labor, has seen sales of clothes to
the United States jump 75 percent in the first seven months to nearly $10.5
billion.
The two sides are aiming for a deal similar to a pact China and the European
Union reached in June, and revised in September, that limits annual growth in 10
categories of Chinese textile exports to the 25-nation EU to between 8 and 12.5
percent a year in the period 2005-2007.
If China had not negotiated the caps, the EU would have been permitted under
the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 to impose
unilateral growth limits of 7.5 percent a year until the end of 2008.
The United States has already invoked these "safeguard" provisions to curb
imports of Chinese shirts, trousers, bras, underwear, yarn and other textile and
clothing products.
Spooner said Washington reserved the right to resort to further restrictions
to give its textile industry time to adjust.
"The US has been using its right under China's WTO accession agreement to
invoke safeguards in cases of market disruption or the threat of market
disruption, and we will continue to do so as appropriate," he said.
Spooner said Washington's aim was to reach "a longer-term solution that will
permit greater stability in textile and apparel trade."
But a Chinese government researcher said in remarks published on Thursday
said Washington was at fault for having turned textiles into a political issue.
"The US side has politicized the trade issue and largely neglected
international practices, which makes it very difficult for people to expect any
substantial results from the talks," Mei Xinyu from the Chinese Academy of
International Trade and Economic Cooperation wrote in the Shanghai Securities
News.
The two sides narrowed their differences in Washington last month and US
industry officials had been confident before this week's talks that a deal could
finally be struck.
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