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| Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and US
Trade Representative Rob Portman sign an agreement on textiles in
London Tuesday November 8, 2005 to resolve a trade dispute over
imports of Chinese clothing and textile products into the United
States. |
The United States and China have signed a deal to resolve a trade
dispute over imports of Chinese clothing and textile products into the
United States, the two sides said Tuesday.
US Trade Representative Rob Portman and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo
Xilai announced the deal at a joint news conference in London and hailed
it as a success for both sides.
"I believe the textile agreement shows our ability to resolve tough
trade disputes in a manner that benefits both countries," Portman said.
The accord is aimed at smoothing over a rough spot in the US-China
trade relationship before President George Bush visits Beijing in the
middle of this month.
The deal follows one China reached with the 25-nation European Union
earlier this year and comes just over a week before US President George W.
Bush is due to visit China.
Portman said the agreement was fair to both countries, and called it an
example of what "hard work" and "good faith" could accomplish.
Bo described the outcome as a "win-win
result", though he later said the agreement was "a
far cry" from Beijing's
original expectations.
The accord was reached after seven rounds of negotiations, at some of
which Bo said the two sides had been "almost at the edge of a cliff".
The deal covers more than 30 individual products and contains quotas
that a US statement said would begin at low levels.
An unnamed US official said the accord would allow hundreds of
thousands of Chinese garments piled up in US ports to be sold.
China's exports of clothing and textile products to the United States
jumped more than 50 percent in the first eight months of 2005 to nearly
$17.7 billion following the end of a global quota system on January 1.
That prompted U.S. textile producers to seek protection under a
"safeguard" provision of China's 2001 entry into the World Trade
Organisation. The measure allows WTO members to restrict the growth in
imports from China to 7.5 percent annually when there is a
market-disrupting surge.
The Bush administration has imposed safeguard curbs on billions of
dollars' worth of Chinese clothing imports this year. But because the
curbs have to be renewed annually, textile groups have pushed for a
comprehensive agreement that would limit imports until 2008 when the
safeguard provision expires.
US textile and clothing companies and their labor unions were pushing
for a comprehensive deal to stem a flood of Chinese imports that began
last January when global quotas, in place for more than three decades,
were lifted.
Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile
Organizations, said on Sunday the new textile agreement was expected to
restrict 34 categories of clothing and textile imports from China through
2008.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2005-11-09 10:09
