Textile Industry Seeks Survival Means

Textile Industry Seeks Survival Means
Officers from the six largest trade associations representing the U.S. textile and fiber industry met in Washington, DC, Tuesday and unanimously approved a lobbying campaign they say is designed to ensure the industry's survival.

Central to the campaign is an intensely focused lobbying effort designed to convince the U.S. government that it needs to act swiftly to counter the threat from China. The groups released a report from ATMI, available at www.atmi.org, showing that unless the government acts, China will gain control of between 65% and 75% of the U.S. apparel market once quotas on Chinese imports are removed on January 1, 2005 and will destroy the U.S. textile and apparel industries.

The initial goal of the campaign is to persuade the U.S. government to implement the special textile China safeguard in an early and effective way to moderate the massive surge of Chinese exports. At the meeting, the organizations agreed to work together on submitting new safeguard petitions