Washington, DC – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) today requested that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) collect data on Chinese textile imports and report those data back to the Committee on a regular basis.  Chairman Rangel requested this “textile monitoring program” due to concern about a potential surge of textile imports from China on December 31, 2008, upon expiration of an existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) on textile and apparel between China and the U.S.

“Monitoring Chinese textile imports will help provide the Committee with timely, accurate information to assess whether Chinese imports are causing or are threatening to cause market disruption in the United States and in developing countries,” said Chairman Rangel.  “While the Administration does not appear to be taking this concern seriously, the Committee on Ways and Means has a clear interest in and a responsibility to address this issue and, if warranted after reviewing the data, prevent harm to American workers, industry and communities.  I look forward to receiving the information requested from the ITC and working with my colleagues to develop an appropriate course of action.” 

As outlined in the text of the requesting letter below, Chairman Rangel has heard from a number of American textile and apparel producers as well as fellow Members of Congress concerned about a possible “market disrupting surge” in imports when the MOU expires, based on prior experience. Textile and apparel imports from China increased dramatically when quotas were eliminated on December 31, 2004.  For example, in the first six months of 2005, imports of cotton trousers from China increased 1,800 percent (from 918,000 dozen in the first six months of 2004 to 17,454,000 dozen in the first six months of 2005), while the price of those imports fell by 50 percent.  This increase in imports of cotton trousers and a long list of other textile and apparel products from China disrupted the U.S. market and crowded out imports from other countries, especially poorer nations in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.  The market share of textile and apparel imports from third countries dropped from 87% to 67% from 2002 through 2005.  And apparel imports from U.S. preference partners in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America fell by nearly $1 billion in 2005 alone. At the same time, the U.S. textile and apparel industry has lost more than 184,000 jobs since the beginning of 2005, and developing country trading partners.

Chairman Rangel’s letter requests the ITC do the following:

• Initiate an investigation to provide the Committee with statistical reports on the volume, value, unit value, and import market share of certain textile and apparel imports from China.
• Compile these data for each product covered by the Textile and Apparel MOU, at both the three-digit textile/apparel category level and at the level of the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule for each product within each of the three-digit textile/apparel categories. 
• Provide the Committee with preliminary Customs data once every two weeks and final Census data once a month. 
• Simultaneously post these reports on its website. 
• Provide an historical compilation of the volume, value, unit value, and import market share of the articles specified above dating from January 1, 2003 to the most recent month available. 
• Provide the Committee with reports as the preliminary and final data become available. 
• Publish a compilation of the monthly reports of the final Census data on an annual basis. 
• Continue providing these reports until such time that the Committee terminates or amends this request. 

Click here to view Chairman Rangel’s Letter to ITC Chairman Shara Aranoff

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