On June 8, Mr. Du Yuzhou, the President of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) visited the Headquarter of American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) in Washington D.C. and had a meeting with Mr. Kevin M. Burke, the President and Chief Executive Officer of AAFA.

The two presidents exchanged opinions on promoting mutual-beneficial cooperation between the two organizations. And they all expressed their common standpoints in favor of the free trade.

Recently the Bush administration has agreed to monitor and possibly self-initiate anti-dumping cases against US apparel imports from Vietnam. And the US Department of Commerce is currently conducting an antidumping investigation on coated free sheet paper from the People’s Republic of China. AAFA concerns that US government will adopt the same measures to impose limitation on Chinese textile imports when textile quota comes into the end by 2008, and they have sent a mail to the US Secretary of Commerce to persuade the government to take further account.

As the national federation of all texile-related industries, CNTAC also plays a positive role on influencing the policy making within China. According to Mr. Du, to enhance awareness of self-discipline in quality, IPR and social compliance among Chinese textile and clothing companies is the priority of CNTAC’s work.

Other attenders of the meeting also included Mr. Stephen Lamar, the Executive Vice President of AAFA, Mr. Kurt Courtney, the Manager of Government Relations of AAFA, Mr. Xu Yingxin, the Director of Marketing Department of CNTAC and Mr. Liang Pengcheng, the Deputy Secretary-General of CCPITTEX.