In an unprecedented show of cooperation, the major textile and clothing associations in Turkey and Mexico have joined with their US counterparts to call on the World Trade Organization to prevent, they say, a global take-over of textile and apparel trade by a few large supplier countries. In a letter to the Director General of the WTO, US and Turkish industry officials call for an extension of the textile and clothing quota phase-out process until December 31, 2007. The Turkish and Mexican and US groups call on other textile and apparel associations in affected countries to join them in this "crucial fight to prevent global monopolization of this sector." The Istanbul Textile & Apparel Exporters' Association (ITKIB), the Mexican National Chamber of Textile Industry (CANAINTEX) the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) and the American Textile Manufacturers' Institute argue that circumstances associated with the textile and clothing quota phase-out process have changed dramatically since the Uruguay Round and the initiation of the quota phase-out process in 1995.
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