ATMI praises federal moves to curb imports
Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, April 21, 2003
Coral Gables, Fla. — Members of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute praised new federal government procedures to protect the U.S. industry against damaging Chinese textile imports, but would have liked to see action sooner.
U.S. Department of Commerce Undersecretary Grant Aldonas outlined at ATMI's annual meeting here the procedures under which U.S. companies can ask for protection.
"We appreciate these efforts," said ATMI Chairman Van May. "Such action is needed to ensure that the commitment made by President Bush to 'minimize the impact of trade agreements on the textile industry' is kept. We only wish this process had been approved sooner.... Imports have continued to surge in the seven months since we first asked the government to take action and invoke the textile safeguard provisions."
ATMI says imports of Chinese textile and apparel products have increased 135% over the past year, while scores of U.S. textile mills have closed and more than 25,000 U.S. textile jobs have been lost.
May said, "While we have not seen the actual rules governing the use of the safeguard, it appears that petitions from the industry will be acted on under a strict timetable and that ATMI will be able to utilize the safeguard on behalf of its members.... The effective use of the safeguard is essential to this industry's long-term survival."
May also urged the U.S. government to take action against China's alleged practice of illegally manipulating its currency to give Chinese producers a significant export advantage over U.S. manufacturers.
Separately, ATMI said it would undertake a broad information campaign to demonstrate the threat that China poses to the world's textile and apparel producers. The campaign, called "The China Threat to World Textile and Apparel Sectors," will be developed over the next several months.
