Sino-US textile talks fail to yield any result
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-01 07:13

U.S. and Chinese officials have now met four times since Washington imposed emergency curbs, known as safeguards, in May to restrain a burst of Chinese exports unleashed by the abolition of global textile quotas on January 1.

Meanwhile, U.S. industry groups still were waiting to hear if the Bush administration would unilaterally restrict more imports of Chinese clothing using the special mechanism allowed under World Trade Organization rules.

The Bush administration had been scheduled to decide by Wednesday on industry requests for emergency restrictions on six more categories of Chinese clothing and textiles, including bras, sweaters, dressing gowns and knit fabric.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Commerce Department still had not announced any decision on those requests.

U.S. textiles groups said they were prepared to file more safeguard requests next week, if no deal is reached.

The five Bush administration officials who comprise the interagency textile committee responsible for making the decision apparently are all in Beijing for the negotiations, industry officials said.

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