nation European Union earlier this year and comes just over a week before U.S. President George W. Bush is due to visit China. U.S. textile and clothing companies and their labor unions were pushing for a comprehensive deal to stem a flood of Chinese imports that began last January when global quotas, in place for more than three decades, were lifted. The Bush administration has been reimposing quotas, known as «safeguards,» for individual categories of clothing and textiles. The industry wanted a comprehensive deal covering all threatened categories of U.S. production and lasting for three years. The safeguard quotas were only good for a year at a time. In a victory for U.S. manufacturers, the deal lasts through 2008, one year longer than the EU agreement. U.S. textile industry officials have expressed support for the plan. U.S. retailers have said they would reluctantly go along with a comprehensive deal as long as the growth in imports was sufficient to let them obtain reliable supplies. Portman and Bo were to travel to Geneva later Tuesday for talks at the World Trade Organization on a global trade deal.
