[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5026 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5026

    To require the President to take certain actions to enforce the 
    textiles and apparel safeguard with respect to imports from the 
                      People's Republic of China.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 8, 2004

Mr. Levin (for himself, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Matsui, 
  Mr. Menendez, Mr. Spratt, and Mr. Clyburn) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the President to take certain actions to enforce the 
    textiles and apparel safeguard with respect to imports from the 
                      People's Republic of China.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Textiles and Apparel China Safeguard 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Since January 1, 2001, the United States textiles and 
        apparel industries have lost 345,000 jobs.
            (2) Under the terms of the Agreement on Textiles and 
        Clothing of the World Trade Organization, on January 1, 2005, 
        the United States will be required to eliminate all quotas on 
        textiles and apparel products maintained against other World 
        Trade Organization members, including the People's Republic of 
        China.
            (3) Job losses are expected to continue, and to accelerate 
        after the elimination of United States quotas, with at least 
        one study estimating that an additional 630,000 United States 
        jobs in the textiles and apparel sector will be lost by the end 
        of 2006.
            (4) Many analysts believe that the People's Republic of 
        China's dominance of the United States textiles and apparel 
        market will grow after the elimination of quotas, with some 
        studies indicating that imports from the People's Republic of 
        China will account for more than two-thirds of total United 
        States consumption by 2006.
            (5) President Clinton negotiated the right to use a special 
        textiles and apparel safeguard as an integral part of the 
        agreement allowing the People's Republic of China to join the 
        World Trade Organization. The safeguard allows the United 
        States to impose quotas on exports to the United States of 
        textiles and apparel products of the People's Republic of China 
        if such exports result in or threaten disruption of the United 
        States market.
            (6) The current Administration delayed in applying the 
        special textiles and apparel safeguard by failing to implement 
        it for 17 months after the accession to the World Trade 
        Organization of the People's Republic of China. During this 
        delay, exports to the United States of textiles and apparel 
        products of the People's Republic of China increased 
        substantially, while significant numbers of United States 
        textiles and apparel workers lost their jobs.
            (7) When the executive branch finally issued procedures to 
        implement the safeguard on May 21, 2003, those procedures 
        severely restricted the ability of the United States textiles 
        and apparel industries and their workers to employ the 
        safeguard in ways not required by the Accession Agreement of 
        the People's Republic of China to the World Trade Organization.
            (8) To date, the executive branch has refused to self-
        initiate a case under the special textiles and apparel 
        safeguard, notwithstanding the significant increase in exports 
        to the United States of textiles and apparel products of the 
        People's Republic of China and concurrent job losses in the 
        United States in the textiles and apparel industries.
            (9) Large bipartisan groups of Members of the House of 
        Representatives and Senate urged the President to support a 
        special session of the World Trade Organization to discuss the 
        impact that expiration of textiles and apparel quotas will have 
        on trade and employment in this sector throughout the world.
            (10) Despite studies showing major employment loss in the 
        United States and disruptions in trade throughout the world, 
        the President did not support such a special session at the 
        World Trade Organization and has not created a comprehensive 
        plan to address the expiration of the quota regime.
            (11) As part of the Doha Round negotiations of the World 
        Trade Organization, the President has proposed to eliminate 
        textiles and apparel tariffs.

SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF REGULATIONS.

    The President shall, upon the enactment of this Act, modify the 
procedures for considering requests from the public for safeguard 
actions on imports of textiles and apparel products of the People's 
Republic of China, as published in the Federal Register on May 21, 
2003, so that import relief will be provided, in accordance with the 
Accession Agreement of the People's Republic of China to the World 
Trade Organization, if a claim is supported by data showing that 
imports of textiles or apparel products of Chinese origin are, due 
either to market disruption, or to the threat of market disruption, 
threatening to impede the orderly development of trade in such 
products, including products not produced in the United States if such 
products include components of United States origin.

SEC. 4. COMPREHENSIVE AGREEMENT ON TEXTILES AND APPAREL PRODUCTS.

    The President shall, upon the enactment of this Act, initiate 
consultations with the People's Republic of China for the purpose of 
reaching an agreement with that country on the application of 
quantitative limitations on imports into the United States of all 
textiles and apparel products that--
            (1) are products of the People's Republic of China;
            (2) as of September 1, 2004, are subject to quotas under 
        the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing of the World Trade 
        Organization; and
            (3) meet the requirements for applying safeguards on such 
        imports, as modified under section 3.

SEC. 5. IMPOSITION OF QUANTITATIVE LIMITATIONS.

    If, within 90 days after consultations under section 4 are 
initiated, an agreement described in section 4 is not reached, the 
President shall impose the quantitative limitations provided for in the 
Accession Agreement referred to in section 3 on imports of all textiles 
and apparel products that were the subject of the consultations.
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