The U.S. textile industry petitioned the government Wednesday to limit Chinese imports on 14 categories of clothing, saying inaction would cost American jobs. "We're filing these petitions because of the extreme disruption in the American textile industry caused by an unprecedented flood of imports from China," said Karl Spillhaus, president of the National Textile Association. The World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed quota-based restrictions on textile exports to expire at the beginning of this year. The move opened the door for the massive Chinese textile industry to increase exports, causing caused concerns in the U.S. and the European Union that their markets would be overrun. Textile exporting countries were worried that they would not be able to keep pace with China's low priced wares. Under a clause in China's accession agreement to the World Trade Organization, the U.S. and other countries can limit Chinese textile imports until 2008 if these imports threaten domestic markets. --More 2304 Local Time 2004 GMT
