By Doug Cunningham

Cheap Chinese textile imports into the U.S. have cost an estimated 26,000 U.S. jobs so far this year. Nineteen textile plants have closed down. A quota system controlling textile imports that was in place for thirty years expired January first and a flood of imports, mostly from China, followed. Now even the Bush administration is trying to slow down the flow of textiles from China. U.S. government reps are talking to the Chinese about reducing their clothing exports. UNITE-HERE, representing textile workers, has long tried to get government action against these imports. A World Trade Agreement provision allows the U.S. and other countries to re-impose textile limits on China to limit the flood. The National Council of Textile Organizations says that by using its currrencyt as a weapon and by heavily subsidizing it's textile industry China has effectively declared a textile trade war in the U.S.