An omnibus fiscal year 2009 appropriations bill approved by the House last week
includes a provision directing the Department of Commerce to monitor apparel
imports from China and Vietnam. The provision drew fire from industry groups, who
say it is duplicative and legally questionable.

The bill states that the DOC’s International Trade Administration “is expected to
undertake apparel import monitoring, focusing on prices of imports from China and
Vietnam and whether their state-run industries are illegally pricing products and
dumping in the U.S. market.” This is a clear indication that such monitoring could be
a precursor to government initiated antidumping proceedings against such imports.

In a Feb. 26 letter to House and Senate leaders and the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative, four industry associations representing apparel, retail and importing
companies registered strong opposition to this provision on several grounds.

• The International Trade Commission is already conducting an apparel monitoring
program under which it is posting import volume and value data on its Web site
every two weeks, and it would be “inappropriate … [to] require a different and
duplicative process.”
• DOC monitoring of apparel imports from Vietnam over a two-year period, which
expired in January, confirmed three times that there is no evidence of dumping.
• A monitoring system on apparel imports ostensibly for the benefit of U.S. yarn and
fabric producers raises legal concerns and could lead to the circumvention of AD law
if the DOC ignores the standing and injury requirements and launches de facto AD
analyses outside the context of formal investigations.

“At a time when consumer prices are increasing and businesses are struggling to
make ends meet and keep their workers employed,” the groups said, “we urge
Congress not to erect programs that create more uncertainty in the marketplace and
spend valuable taxpayer resources on unnecessary and redundant programs that are
inconsistent with U.S. law and international obligations.”

The bill also urges the ITA to implement “textile safeguard actions with respect to
China’s World Trade Organization Accession Agreement, bilateral quotas on non-WTO
members, and textile provision of the United States preferential programs and
agreements, through filling of vacancies in enforcement offices.” The letter countered
that authority for textile safeguard actions against China expired in December 2008
and that the remaining language issues policy that should be considered by the
committees of jurisdiction, not the Appropriations Committee.