ar. In addition, the United States has charged that certain Chinese entities have sought to avoid United States tariffs by undervaluing textile and apparel shipments On January 6,1994, the United States announced that a large reduction of 25-35% below the 1993 level of China's textile and apparel quota would result due to China's refusal to accept anti-circumvention provisions in a new textile agreement. The new quota levels were set to take effect on January 17, 1994. However, on that date, the United States and China came up with a new textile agreement that would effectively reduce the growth rate of China's textile exports to the United States by allowing United States to significantly reduce China's quotas if China violates the agreement through transshipments. Charges by the United States Customs Service of illegal transshipments by China have led the United States on separate occasions since the signing of the agreement to reduce China's textile and apparel quotas on specific products. The most recent incident occurred on September 6, 1996, when the U.S.T.R. announced that the United States would impose a $19 million dollar punitive charge against China's 1996 textile quota allowance due to China's repeated violations of the United States-China textile agreement dealing with illegal transshipments. China in turn has threatened to fight back by imposing restrictions on the importation of certain United States products. I can only begin to imagine the great cost that it takes on a yearly basis to keep a watchful eye on the export practices of the Chinese textile and apparel industries. As if the problem of Chinese textile and apparel exports were not bad enough already there is information that would led to cast an even darker shadow on this portion of the Chinese economy. It is believed the use of forced labor is widespread and a long-standing and accepted practice in many parts of China. Evidence leads us to believe that China mi...
