USA & JAPAN: Textile Task Force On Mission To USA

Task Force for the Japanese Textile Industry Trade arrived in the USA today for a week long visit to explore the current situation in the international textile trade, Woolmark.com reported last week.The task force, comprising members from Consumer Goods Industries Bureau (CGIB) of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Federation of the Textile Industries in Japan, was established in April this year.The rapid expansion of imports, particularly from China, is causing the Japanese textile industry problems, the Task Force will claim. Knitwear companies say that they are especially affected by the high penetration of imports, which has reached 95 per cent, and warned the government that the industry would be completely destroyed if imports continue to expand at such rates in the future. The task force, which sent a mission to China in June, commissioned Kurt Salmon and Associates in July to study the US textile industry and trade policy.The mission, led by CGIB's textile section manager Noriaki Kobayashi, hopes to look at factors behind the increase in competitiveness of the US textile industry, US trade policies and the problems facing the Japanese domestic industry.