[Federal Register: December 29, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 249)]
[Notices]
[Page 77998-77999]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29de04-58]
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COMMITTEE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEXTILE AGREEMENTS
Solicitation of Public Comments on Request for Textile and
Apparel Safeguard Action on Imports from China
December 21, 2004.
AGENCY: The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (the
Committee)
ACTION: Solicitation of public comments concerning a request for
safeguard action on imports from China of brassieres and other body
supporting garments (Category 349/649).
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SUMMARY: The Committee has received a request from the National Council
of Textile Organizations, the National Textile Association, the
American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, SEAMS, and UNITE HERE!
(Requestors) asking the Committee to reapply the limit on imports from
China of brassieres and other body supporting garments in accordance
with the textile and apparel safeguard provision of the Working Party
on the Accession of China to the World Trade Organization (the
Accession Agreement). On December 24, 2003 the Committee established an
Accession Agreement limit on imports from China of brassieres and other
body supporting garments, which will expire on December 23, 2004. The
Committee hereby solicits public comments on this request.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jay Dowling, Office of Textiles and
Apparel,
[[Page 77999]]
U.S. Department of Commerce, (202) 482-4058.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Authority: Section 204 of the Agriculture Act of 1956, as
amended; Executive Order 11651, as amended.
BACKGROUND:
The textile and apparel safeguard provision of the Accession
Agreement provides for the United States and other members of the World
Trade Organization that believe imports of Chinese origin textile and
apparel products are, due to market disruption, threatening to impede
the orderly development of trade in these products to request
consultations with China with a view to easing or avoiding the
disruption. Pursuant to this provision, if the United States requests
consultations with China, it must, at the time of the request, provide
China with a detailed factual statement showing ``(1) the existence or
threat of market disruption; and (2) the role of products of Chinese
origin in that disruption.'' Beginning on the date that it receives
such a request, China must restrict its shipments to the United States
to a level no greater than 7.5 percent (6 percent for wool product
categories) above the amount entered during the first 12 months of the
most recent 14 months preceding the request. If exports from China
exceed that amount, the United States may enforce the restriction.
The Committee has published procedures (the Procedures) it follows
in considering requests for Accession Agreement textile and apparel
safeguard actions (68 FR 27787, May 21, 2003; 68 FR 49440, August 18,
2003), including the information that must be included in such requests
in order for the Committee to consider them.
On December 1, 2004, the Requestors asked the Committee to reapply
an Accession Agreement textile and apparel safeguard action on imports
from China of brassieres and other body supporting garments (Category
349/649) on the ground that an anticipated increase in imports of
brassieres and other body supporting garments after December 23, 2004,
threatens to disrupt the U.S. market for brassieres and other body
supporting garments. The request is available at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov/Safeguard_intro.htm.
In light of the considerations
set forth in the Procedures, the Committee has determined that the
Requestors have provided the information necessary for the Committee to
consider the request.
The Committee is soliciting public comments on the request, in
particular with regard to whether there is a threat of disruption to
the U.S. market for brassieres and other body supporting garments and,
if so, the role of Chinese-origin brassieres and other body supporting
garments in that disruption. To this end, the Committee seeks relevant
information addressing factors such as the following, which may be
relevant in the particular circumstances of this case, involving a
product under a quota that will expire on December 23, 2004: (1)
Whether imports of brassieres and other body supporting garments from
China are entering, or are expected to enter, the United States at
prices that are substantially below prices of the like or directly
competitive U.S. product, and whether those imports are likely to have
a significant depressing or suppressing effect on domestic prices of
the like or directly competitive U.S. product or are likely to increase
demand for further imports from China; (2) Whether exports of Chinese-
origin brassieres and other body supporting garments to the United
States are likely to increase substantially and imminently (due to
existing unused production capacity, to capacity that can easily be
shifted from the production of other products to the production of
brassieres and other body supporting garments, or to an imminent and
substantial increase in production capacity or investment in production
capacity), taking into account the availability of other markets to
absorb any additional exports; (3) Whether Chinese-origin brassieres
and other body supporting garments that are presently sold in the
Chinese market or in third-country markets will be diverted to the U.S.
market in the imminent future (for example, due to more favorable
pricing in the U.S. market or to existing or imminent import restraints
into third country markets); (4) The level and the extent of any recent
change in inventories of brassieres and other body supporting garments
in China or in U.S. bonded warehouses; (5) Whether conditions of the
domestic industry of the like or directly competitive product
demonstrate that market disruption is likely (as may be evident from
any anticipated factory closures or decline in investment in the
production of brassieres and other body supporting garments, and
whether actual or anticipated imports of Chinese-origin brassieres and
other body supporting garments are likely to affect the development and
production efforts of the U.S. brassieres and other body supporting
garments industry; and (6) Whether U.S. managers, retailers,
purchasers, importers, or other market participants have recognized
Chinese producers of brassieres and other body supporting garments as
potential suppliers (for example, through pre-qualification procedures
or framework agreements).
Comments may be submitted by any interested person. Comments must
be received no later than January 28, 2005. Interested persons are
invited to submit ten copies of such comments to the Chairman,
Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, Room 3001A,
U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th and Constitution Avenue N.W.,
Washington, DC 20230.
The Committee will protect any business confidential information
that is marked ``business confidential'' from disclosure to the full
extent permitted by law. To the extent that business confidential
information is provided, two copies of a non-confidential version must
also be provided in which business confidential information is
summarized or, if necessary, deleted. Comments received, with the
exception of information marked ``business confidential'', will be
available for inspection between Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m and 5:30 p.m
in the Trade Reference and Assistance Center Help Desk, Suite 800M, USA
Trade Information Center, Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, (202) 482-3433.
The Committee will make a determination within 60 calendar days of
the close of the comment period as to whether the United States will
request consultations with China. If the Committee is unable to make a
determination within 60 calendar days, it will cause to be published a
notice in the Federal Register, including the date by which it will
make a determination. If the Committee makes a negative determination,
it will cause this determination and the reasons therefore to be
published in the Federal Register. If the Committee makes an
affirmative determination that imports of Chinese-origin brassieres and
other body supporting garments threaten to disrupt the U.S. market, the
United States will request consultations with China with a view to
easing or avoiding the disruption.
D. Michael Hutchinson,
Acting Chairman, Committee for the Implementation of Textile
Agreements.
[FR Doc. E4-3869 Filed 12-28-04; 8:45 am]