WASHINGTON - The U.S. and China on Saturday reached a tentative agreement to cap most exports of Chinese clothing to the U.S. over the next three years, according to textile industry executives representing both importers and producers.
For China, the agreement raises the allowable U.S. import growth rate for Chinese pants, knit shirts, bras and other items to 10 percent in 2006 and to about 16 percent by 2008, according to the executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In return, U.S. textile makers get a set standard of trade restrictions they say is needed to protect them from the low- priced Chinese clothing that has flooded the U.S. market this year. The U.S. had been imposing caps on a case-by-case basis by examining individual complaints by companies - a time-consuming process that must be redone each year under global trade rules.

So far this year, the U.S. has imposed an annual growth limit of 7.5 percent on $3.4 billion worth of Chinese textile imports, which represents at least 5 percent of the total amount of such imports from China last year, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. lawmakers, manufacturers and unions had been pressing the Bush administration to crack down on what they see as China's unfair trade practices, including the undervaluing of its currency, providing cheap loans to companies, and other policies that facilitate a surge in Chinese goods into the United States.

The agreement on textiles, which the industry officials said is still not completed, would eliminate what has been one of the more contentious matters just two weeks before President George W. Bush is scheduled to travel to China for a summit.

The U.S. is likely to sign the agreement in Geneva as early as Tuesday, one of the officials said. Telephone calls and e-mail messages to Christin Baker, a spokeswoman at the U.S. trade office, weren't returned. Trade Representative Rob Portman had already planned to be in Geneva next week, according to his public schedule.

Since a four-decade-old system of global quotas expired at the end of last year, China's textile exports to all nations jumped 22 percent to $55 billion through the first nine months of the year, according to the customs bureau in Beijing.

Its textile and apparel exports to the United States are likely to rise by more than 60 percent this year from $15 billion in 2004, based on U.S. data.

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