From: Romie Littrell [mailto:
littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz]
In a past message I mentioned I though China would
wait until after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
before "taking off the gloves"*. I could be wrong in
the timing:
Tradeindia.com
From the Editor's desk
Some Relief to Global Exim Inc.
The United States has turned the heat on Asian export
giant, China, announcing that it would impose new
quotas on cotton shirts, trousers, and underwear from
the country.
Although it came as a reason to rejoice for the Indian
exim community, the calculations of the WTO have yet
again gone haywire.
I still remember when China joined the World Trade
Organisation in 2001 it agreed that the United States
and European Union could impose the caps. Although the
mechanism can be termed as protectionist to an extent,
China has done a full U-turn on its earlier
commitment.
And figures tell me that since January 1, Chinese
exports of cotton trousers to the US have grown by
1,500 percent and by 1,350 percent for cotton knit
shirts. No wonder that the United States is getting so
paranoid!
I feel that China is overdoing things a bit by
flooding the global markets with cheap garments that
are slowly killing small countries. Small countries
like Bangladesh for example, have been fighting
tooth-and-nail for mere survival of their textile
industry and with China providing cheap garments, it
will do no good at all.
During one of my recent visits, textile authorities in
the US had told me that the unprecedented surge of
Chinese imports imperilled tens of thousands of jobs
and the existence of several small factories.
Its high time the WTO came forward and did the
needful to help out other countries. Unless a
consensus is reached I still see mayhem in the coming
trade talks.
Bikky Khosla
CEO
Tradeindia.com
* "taking off the gloves," in the past when men's
gloves were more common apparel, when a man was
provoked into a fistfight, he would often take off his
gloves and throw them to the ground, signalling to his
opponent that he did not intend to soften in any way
the impact of his fist upon the other man's chin.
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Romie F. Littrell, PhD, An fánaí fiáin
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
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