The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) issued the following statement on the upcoming US China textile negotiations that are scheduled to begin in Beijing on August 30.

AMTAC Executive Director Auggie Tantillo currently is in Beijing for the talks and said, "With virtual limitless pennies per hour labor and a slew of unfair trade practices provided by their state controlled economy, China has demonstrated an overwhelming ability to devastate US industry."

"It is critical that the United States define a new trading relationship with China that addresses their numerous unfair advantages in the global marketplace. The construction of a strong, comprehensive bilateral textile agreement would be the first step toward such an arrangement."

"So far the US government has done a good job of consulting with the domestic industry on the matter of a textile agreement with China. We look forward to working closely with the Bush Administration on this critical agreement as these talks resume in Beijing, China during the week of August 29," continued Tantillo.

Year to date statistics released by the US government''s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) show that total US textile and apparel imports by volume from China are up 47 percent in 2005 compared to 2004. As of June 2005, China holds a 32 percent share of the US textile and apparel import market (up from 23 percent in June 2004), the highest percentage share held by a single country in modern U.S. history.

The US government has safeguards in place on cotton trousers, man-made fiber trousers, cotton shirts, man-made fiber shirts, men''s and boys cotton and man-made fiber woven shirts, cotton and man-made fiber underwear, socks, and combed cotton yarn.

Additional safeguard decisions by the US government are due on August 31 on cases covering wool trousers, sweaters, brassieres, dressing gowns, knit fabric and other synthetic filament fabric.

Finally, the US government also has accepted for review six additional safeguard cases covering curtains, socks, woven blouses, skirts, nightwear and swimwear. Decisions on these cases are pending this fall.

Delving more deeply into the import surge, year to date U.S. apparel imports by volume through June from China are up 125 percent compared to last year, an increase of more than 1.5 billion square meters equivalent. This has allowed China to increase its share of the U.S. import market from 13.5 percent in June 2004 to 26.5 percent in June 2005.

Year to date U.S. textile imports by volume from China through June are up 23 percent compared to last year, an increase of 968 million square meters equivalent. This has allowed China to increase its share of the U.S. import market from 30.9 percent in June 2004 to 36.1 percent in June 2005.