The Hindu Business Line : Texprocil flays US, Turkish bodies plea for more time

A BROAD coalition consisting of the American Textiles Manufactures Institute, American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association and Ready-to-wear Garment and Clothing Manufacturers Association of Turkey have made a representation to the Director-General of the WTO requesting him to act immediately to extend the deadline on implementation of the final integration stage of the trade in textiles/clothing to December 31, 2007, from December 31, 2004.

Reacting to this move, Mr Lalit P. Desai, Chairman, Texprocil (The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council), said in press release, that the request to extend the deadline for implementation of the final integration stage was an absurd demand as all countries had agreed to phase out quota restrictions over a period of 10 years when the WTO was set up in 1995.

Exporters and manufacturers of textiles/clothing in India were eagerly awaiting the removal of quotas so that textile trade in this crucial sector could be conducted in a non-discriminatory manner under the principles of GATT 94.

He pointed out that circumstances associated with the textiles and clothing quota integration process had not changed dramatically as claimed by the US and Turkish associations.

Regarding China, the accession agreement it signed while joining the WTO provides for safeguard measures to member countries to restrain supplies of specific products in case they cause any market disruption. Other trade disrupting practices can be tackled under prevailing rules under the anti-dumping / anti-subsidy / safeguard agreements negotiated by all countries.

Mr Desai added that the integration process, already severely backloaded, should not be rolled back by vested interests who would prefer to preserve their preferential trading arrangements and shy away from open competition.

Turkey, he pointed out, already has a `customs union' with the European Union, which gives it special access in these markets. US manufacturers are also benefiting from bilateral and regional pacts mandating the use of raw materials/ fabrics produced in the US. Thus, he said, there was no justification for the American and Turkish Association to request a rollback of the final integration process.