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USA:Textile import sanctions petitions -
legal wrangles till May expected |
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2005-2-28
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First there was a case filed by the US textile manufacturers against unbridled imports of Chinese textiles and apparels saying that it would harm the indigenous industry.
The Justice Department last week filed an appeal in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington to overturn an injunction issued last December enjoining the inter-agency Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) from considering safeguard petitions based on a threat of market disruption.
Now, concerted efforts of the textile industry to use a threat of market disruption to have import quotas imposed on Chinese imports remain suspended till May as the court has given the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USAITA) until March 15 to respond to the appeal, but oral arguments are not scheduled until May.
USAITA contends that CITA violated its own procedures in agreeing to consider threat-based petitions and is seeking to block consideration of petitions based on a threat of market disruption.
The legal tangle involves $1.9 billion worth nine threat-based petitions filed by US textile manufacturers and labor that will have to wait till then. Domestic manufacturers meantime are continuing to pursue safeguards based on actual market disruption, and have filed petitions seeking a one-year extension of quotas imposed on brassieres, knit fabric and robes and dressing gowns in 2002.
The Department of Commerce is also being pressured to release import data on a timelier basis, which would help pave the way for even more market disruption–based petitions. |
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