After five months of negotiations, on November 8th , the US and China finally signed a deal limiting imports of Chinese clothing and textile products into the United States.
The deal - set to take effect on January 1st - covers 34 clothing and textile categories including 14 considered the most sensitive by the U.S. industry.

The agreement would allow for imports of most clothing and textile categories covered by the deal to increase by 8% to 10% in 2006, by 12,5% in 2007 and by 15-16 % for 2008.

During the life of agreement the China's access in core apparel categories during the next three years will increase by only 3,8% (in square meters equivalent) over what it would have under a "best case safeguard renewal scenario" for 2006, 2007, 2008.
Both U.S. Trade representative Rob Portman and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai described the deal as the "win-win" agreement, but Bo later added that it was a "far cry" from China's original expectations. He said the agreement would have a much greater impact on China's 20 million textile workers than the several hundred thousand workers in the United States. 
In comparison to the EU agreement, the U.S. government was able to secure lower actual growth rates for the most sensitive products and guaranteed coverage through the end of 2008 (compared to EU, through 2007).

Quick facts on U.S. Imports and Jobs:

• In the first 8 months of the year, all U.S. textile and apparel imports from China increased by 46% by volume;
• Year to date (January to August) in 2005 China has 33 % U.S. import market share by volume, the highest share held by a single country in modern U.S. history. China's share of the U.S. import market by volume for the same period in 2004 was 24,5 %;
• Since January 2001 the U.S. textile and apparel employment has fallen from 1.047.200 to 648.600 as of October 2005 - the loss represents 38,1 % of the January 2001 workforce.

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