The US and China have failed to reach agreement on a deal to limit a flood of Chinese clothing and textile imports coming into the US. Negotiators said the talks would resume this month.
The US side said progress in narrowing the differences had been made in this week's talks which lasted from Monday through Wednesday night, a day longer than had been scheduled. But David Spooner, the administration's chief textile negotiator, said the US was still prepared to end the discussions without an agreement.
"The United States will have no hesitation in walking away from a bad deal," Spooner said in a statement on Thursday.
He said both sides planned to meet again this month, but that an exact time and location had not yet been set. The first round of the discussions took place in August in San Francisco followed by a round of talks in Beijing and then this week's discussions.
"Our preference is to seek a longer-term solution that will permit the orderly development of textile and apparel trade," Spooner said.
He said in the discussions this week the two sides had made progress "particularly with regard to product coverage and quota levels."
US manufacturers said China needed to make better offers in terms of how many products will be covered and the length of the agreement. The industry wants the limits to remain in effect through 2008.
"For the first time, China began to negotiate constructively, but it still has a significant way to go before we can reach a deal that the industry can support," said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations.
The talks are aimed at limiting Chinese clothing and textile imports which have been flooding into the country after global quotas were lifted last January.
The industry has won rulings from the administration to impose limits, known as safeguards, in various categories of clothing but would prefer a comprehensive deal covering all categories of clothing where production has been disrupted by the surge in Chinese products.
US retailers have reluctantly gone along with the idea of a comprehensive deal but they want to see growth in imports significantly higher than the 7.5 percent cap imposed under the safeguard process. They complain that many product categories where safeguards have been imposed have already hit their limits for this year, forcing the retailers to look elsewhere for supplies with time growing short before the holiday sales season begins.
US manufacturers contend that thousands of jobs have been lost and 31 textile plants have been forced to close just this year because of the sharp increase in Chinese shipments.
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