Survival of the fittest (1)

摘要

In a talk in late February to the Hong Kong American Chamber of Commerce, Mr Andrew Leung, Chairman of the Hong Kong Textile Council and of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, proposed a one-day seminar, to be organised jointly by the American Import Shippers ' Association and the USA-ITA (US Association of Importers of Textiles Apparel), with the support of the American Chamber, Hong Kong. The background was that last November the US invoked against three kinds of Chinese products the anti-surge mechanism of the ATC. Now a second round of negotiations is to be held in Washington. As this will be a prelude to what will happen after 2004, the Hong Kong Textile Council has been working with the Hong Kong companies and with the Chinese companies that will be affected by the use of the anti-surge mechanism to seek a solution. The textile issue is expected to be prominent in this Presidential election year. Issues involved in the coming negotiations will be highly political, so they will be difficult. During the Hong Kong-American annual business meeting in November Jim Leonard, Chairman of the US Committee for Implementation of Textile Agreements, touched on this subject but refused to comment.