U.S., China agree to new sock quota
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the People's Republic of China Ministry of Commerce have signed an agreement that puts in place a new quota on imports of Chinese socks to the United States.
The quota is for slightly more than 10 million dozen pairs of imports of Chinese cotton, wool and man-man fiber socks.
'By reimposing quotas, the administration is maintaining the status quo for our domestic sock manufacturers,' said David Spooner, special textile negotiator in the Office of the Trade Representative.
The new agreement allows the Bush administration to delay action until the end of December on a request by the U.S. sock industry to renew a year-long sock safeguard quota that expired last week. That buys time for the United States to conclude a broad textile agreement with China that would govern imports from 2006 through 2008.
'It would simply be unfair to our sock producers if, in the midst of those negotiations, we permitted a safeguard to lapse,' Spooner said in a statement.