117 lawmakers urge president to continue quotas on textiles
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, June 28, 2004
Washington — A group of textile trade associations lobbying for continued textile quotas said 117 members of Congress sent letters to President Bush last week backing the group's position.
The letters urge Bush to support the Istanbul Declaration, which calls for an emergency meeting of the World Trade Organization to reconsider the quotas.
The worldwide quota system for textiles and apparel products is set to expire Jan. 1. Earlier this year, American and Turkish textile associations drafted the Istanbul Declaration, recommending that quotas be extended for three years.
According to the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, the end of quotas would allow China to boost its U.S. textile products market share from less than 20% currently to as much as 75% to 90%.
China also would capture 50% of the world market, AMTAC believes.
Those developments could cost 650,000 U.S. textile jobs, the associations said.
The National Textile Assn., the National Council of Textile Organizations and the National Cotton Council were among groups supporting the congressional letters.
