The safeguard measures on Chinese textile exports were inevitable. The recent announcement by Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) of USA to invoke restrictions on three categories of products from China comes as no surprise for the textile trading community. Chinese exports to USA in these three categories have played a significant role in the existing threat of market disruption. According to the findings, in the three categories, import has skyrocketed which provoked the quota restrictions. U.S. Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) found that the volume of U.S. imports from China surged 1505% in cotton trousers, 1346% in cotton shirts, and 347% in Cotton and Man-made fiber underwear. These figures are definitely threatening not only to the US manufacturers but also to EU as well as to other textile exporting countries. Registering such growth also requires mammoth production base, which cannot be created in a month or a quarter. This
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| reflects the large scale production capability of China. Now if the Chinese exports are restricted by large markets like USA and EU, products would be diverted to other markets creating havoc (refer editorial May 1-15th 2005).
On the other hand, if US and China couldn't reach a satisfactory agreement on the restrictions, countries like India, Pakistan, Mexico, Turkey, Honduras which have significant presence in the US market and rich in cotton clothing could capture the lucrative market. However, it would be difficult for other countries to match the Chinese price. Since there are other investigations on several categories underway, there might come additional safeguard measures, which would save the ailing US textile industry as well as other textile manufacturing nations that are competing with China. As far as India is concerned, its share in those categories has registered gradual growth which would be further enhanced. This is another good news for the Indian exporters after abolition of the quota system in January. 
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