China and US begin new textile talks

China and the US on Wednesday began a sixth round of textile talks in Beijing in an attempt to reach a comprehensive agreement to regulate Chinese textile exports which have surged since global quota ended in January, Agence France Presse reported. Since then, Washington has imposed what it calls "cumbersome" quotas on individual categories of Chinese textile exports to satisfy demands made by US trade groups which allege that about 400,000 textile and apparel manufacturing jobs in the US have been lost since 2001, primarily due to soaring shipments of unfairly cheap Chinese apparel. The last round of negotiations ended without resolution in Washington last month.