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USA:WTO to discuss textile import quotas next month |
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2004-8-23
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The World Trade Organization (WTO)next month is expected to take a hard look at what is likely to happen when all textile and apparel imports quotas are removed in January 2005 in response to an appeal from US and a group of less-developed-country textile manufacturers.
However, the WTO’s Council for Trade In Goods turned down a request for an emergency meeting, but agreed to take up the issue at a regularly scheduled meeting in October. While the WTO and others see China and perhaps one or two other countries dominating trade in a quota-free world, solutions to the problem remain elusive and highly controversial.
Nearly 100 textile and apparel trade associations from 50 countries that comprise the Global Alliance for Fair Trade recently were joined by the countries of Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey in a request for an emergency meeting. But the WTO felt it could not reach a consensus on holding such a meeting in the face of opposition from China, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia and Thailand.
Trade with China is expected to dominate the agenda for the October meeting, and participating countries will get into the questions of currency manipulation, illegal transshipments, export subsidies and a rash of other issues. Any extension of import quotas seems to be out of the question, however, in the face of opposition from the governments of many countries, including the United States. |
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