NCTO welcomes release of preliminary monitoring data

On Friday, April 1, the US Department of Commerce posted its first release of preliminary textile and apparel import data under the Department’s new expedited monitoring system announced on March 21. As expected, the preliminary data validates the industry’s claim that China is an enormous threat to the US market and must be constrained.

The release of preliminary data clearly demonstrates that the US market is being disrupted as a result of imports from China. Some particularly sensitive product categories such as cotton trousers and knit shirts saw increases of as much as 1,566 per cent and 1,487 per cent respectively in the first quarter of 2005 compared to 2004. In light of these enormous increases, NCTO has called upon the government to immediately self-initiate safeguard actions against China. Absent such action, China will daily grow its share of the US market in textiles and apparel and thousands of US jobs will be put into jeopardy.

Chinese customs figures released earlier this week also show that China’s prices are now down 31 per cent in major products since the beginning of the year with some product categories, like underwear, seeing price drops of almost 50 per cent. In response to the release of the preliminary data, Mr Cass Johnson, president of NCTO, said, “The data clearly demonstrates that market disruption is ongoing as a result of imports from China. NCTO is prepared to work with our coalition partners to begin filing actual market disruption cases as soon as possible if the government does not move quickly to self-initiate. Over half a million US jobs are at stake and our workers desperately need their own government to take action on their behalf and prevent these jobs from being sent to China.”