EU Industry Requests Safeguard Action Against Chinese Textile and Apparel Imports

European textile industry representatives have asked the EU Commission and Member State governments to impose safeguards based on January 2005 import data (subscription required), following similar moves by the U.S. textile industry, which is looking for safeguard protection from Chinese textile and apparel exports. The industry actions on both sides of the Atlantic reflect significant increases in textile and apparel exports from China to both the United States and the EU compared to the totals in January 2004. The U.S. textile industry pushed to use the textile safeguard before the quota system ended on December 31, 2004, but the EU did not act to put in place any China-specific safeguard measures.