Following the lifting of global textile and apparel quotas January 1, 2005, 17 mills have closed and over 7000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. Under intense pressure from American textile firms, the Commerce department will launch an investigation to determine if the importing of Chinese made textiles and apparel are causing a major disruption of the U.S. market. If such disruption is found, it is expected the Bush administration will support new quotas.
See "U.S. to Probe Imports of Chinese Goods", Evelyn Iritani, Marla Dickerson, Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2005