American textile producers said they support a move by the Bush administration calling for the World Trade Organization to give textiles "special consideration" in the current round of world trade talks.

The shift in policy announced on June 14 by new U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab signals that textiles should no longer be subsumed into the overall industrial products classification. If that were to happen, trade in textiles would be vulnerable to deep tariff cuts and a takeover of world export markets by China, U.S. industry leaders said.

"The U.S. statement today sends an important message that the U.S. and other textile groups have long been pressing for, namely, that the WTO recognize the unique status of the textile sector and treat it separately at the negotiating table," said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations. "We are grateful to Ambassador Schwab for making this important shift."

Domestic producers fear that textiles are uniquely vulnerable to China and Vietnam because the U.S. industry does not have recourse to traditional trade remedies such as dumping and countervailing duty cases within the WTO framework. The only trade remedy that the industry can currently use is a textile safeguard that expires on January 1, 2009.