WASHINGTON — What began as a routine call on the shipment of Egyptian shirts has trade circles buzzing here.
Top-level U.S. textile officials begin two days of talks today in Cairo that some say could break open a new case of massive Chinese transshipping, while others say the parley is the result of a diplomatic gaff.
For the record, John Rosenbaum, a textile negotiator with the U.S. Trade Representative, said there is “nothing unusual” about these talks, being headed up by Rita Hayes, chairman of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, and Jennifer Hillman, the U.S. textile ambassador and chief textile negotiator.
The Cairo meeting follows a Jan. 31 call issued by CITA, the interagency group that sets and monitors U.S. textile policy, saying it would limit imports of category 340/640 men’s and boys’ woven cotton shirts from Egypt to 467,000 dozen, from February through December.
This call was issued following a 568 percent increase in U.S. imports of these shirts last year, to 542,000 dozen. Egypt is the U.S.’s third-largest noncontrolled supplier of these shirts. It is far behind Honduras, the largest, which shipped 1.1 million dozen of these woven shirts to the U.S. in 1993, up 568 percent from 1992. Kuwait is just ahead of Egypt, having shipped 614,000 dozen in 1993, up 60 percent from 1992.
Trade analysts here noted that CITA routinely issues such calls and in virtually all cases settles the matter either by telephone or meetings between low- and medium-level bureaucrats. In this case, though, the U.S. sent Hayes, the CITA chairman, who also is a deputy assistant Commerce secretary for textiles and apparel, and Hillman, who coincidentally was sworn in just last Friday as the textile ambassador. Several high-level aides accompanied these emissaries to Cairo.
Why is such a blue-ribbon team needed to settle what seems on its face to be a routine trade matter?
“This is a very politically sensitive country in the Middle East in these times,” said Donald Foote, director of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, declining further comment.
At the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, word is the U.S. sent its top textile envoys to Cairo to investigate reports Egypt is a major transshipping point for Chinese-made cotton shirts.
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“We’ve received information from private sources indicating there has been some of this transshipment, and we’ve forwarded this to the appropriate government authorities,” said Charles Bremer, ATMI’s international trade director.
Although Egypt primarily uses its high-quality, high-priced pima cotton in making shirts, Bremer said, “China can get fabrics from anywhere and we hear that the supposedly transshipped shirts have very good needlework,” which would indicate Chinese manufacture.
Another source, though, said the Hayes-Hillman trip was nothing more than political face-saving. Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown was in Egypt in mid-January and met with President Hosni Mubarek, at which time they discussed investment in shirt factories and the fact the U.S. wants to encourage bilateral trade, said an apparel industry official, who requested anonymity.
“A few days after Brown left Cairo, the U.S. embassy delivers a note to the Egyptian government saying that CITA wants to limit Egyptian shirt exports to the U.S., so its government sent a stern letter to the secretary saying they were shocked by the U.S. government’s action,” the source said. The source added Brown later directed an aide to “chat with Rita Hayes, as there was nothing in Brown’s briefing book about this call, while the State Department was concerned about the CITA call, too, because of the Egyptian’s role in Middle East peace talks.”
Hayes could not be reached for comment.