GENEVA_Brazil will seek final World Trade Organization permission to retaliate for illegal U.S. cotton subsidies, Brazil's top trade lawyer said. "We are going to request authority to adopt countermeasures against the U.S. for its failure to reform its cotton regime," Roberto Azevedo told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The decision to pursue retaliatory measures comes after Brazil reserved the right in July to impose $3 billion (?.51 billion) in annual countermeasures to punish the United

The Brazilian textile industry has called on the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to impose limits on Chinese silk imports that have flooded the domestic market, an industry association official said on Friday. The Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (ABIT) issued its request on Thursday, the same day the government published an order opening the way for possible trade sanctions against Chinese products. The textile association asked the government to restrict the impor

Despite BKMEA's allegation of price hike of yarn, BTMA president M A Awal yesterday has said that they are yet to increase the price in accordance to the international market. "The BKMEA's allegation on price hike of yarn is improper. We only increased $0.10 to $0.12 in per kg yarn which is even very much lower than India," he said at a press conference in his office.He ruled out the BKMEA's demand to allow yarn import through land ports and said local spinning mills could meet 80 to 85 per cent

Manmade fibre producers may face squeeze in their margins due to high excise duty and rising raw material costs in the current financial year, indicates an ICRA report. Raw material (fibre intermediates) prices in the short term will remain marginally high matching with global petrochemical and marked up crude prices, on short- term basis. As a result, the report suggests non-integrated players will return low margins over the period.Even though the demand for textile fibres is likely to remain

Since the expiry of textile quotas begining this year, small yet significant texile pockets of the world particularly, Mauritius suffered severe setback.Being a major foreign exchange earner for the country, textile industry saw a steep decline of 18 percent in textile exports during the first six months, this year.This drop is considerable for a sector which provides 52,000 jobs and indirect employment to the tune of additional 200,000 in a total population of 1.2 million.Figures released by Ce

Ministry of Commerce announced that 3385 Chinese companies would share 18 percent of European Union quota for next year.Bowing to the general opinion of the textile manufacturers seeking free and fair distribution of EU quotas, the Ministry resorted to first online bidding last week. 5,284 companies participated in the bidding process among, which 3,385 were announced winners.This is also aimed at help manage better exporters?performance.Ministry also announced that another 12 percent of the tot

An international team has announced it has come together to develop critically needed protective garments for first responders to natural disasters and bio-terror attacks. The garments will provide military and emergency personnel protective wear that is lighter, longer wearing, and offers increased protection from contaminants and a broad range of toxic chemicals. "This alliance will help meet the needs of the post 9/11 global environment," said Ron Kendall, director of The Institute of Envi

The United States and China will make a fourth try next week at negotiating a comprehensive textile trade deal, U.S. trade officials said on Thursday. U.S. and Chinese negotiators will meet Oct 12-13 in Beijing for talks on a pact that potentially could restrict China's textile and clothing shipments to the United States through the end of 2008, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said. The negotiations are driven by U.S. industry concerns about a sharp increase in textile and clothing shipme

All across Asia, markets are being forced to adapt higher man made fibre prices despite reported overcapacity in polyester staple fiber production in Taiwan and South Korea that has kept polyester staple prices depressed outside Chinaall due to raw materials going costly. During 2005, Taiwan's man-made fiber production dropped sharply in hopes of generating higher profitability that prompted spurt in prices in recent months.Yarn and fiber prices in Indinesia saw a rising trend, however. Polyeste

Apparel exports from Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States have fallen in the first seven months of 2005. Mauritius accounted for one-third of all exports to the US with the majority of the production being concentrated in a handful of countries. A report by the USITC highlights certain difficulties faced by African apparel and textile industry that need to be overcome. Statistical data from the US Department of Commerce reveal declining imports from Sub-Saharan Africa in the first seven mon