Twenty four members of the US House of Representatives have sent a letter to President Bush urging the United States to oppose the European Union-led initiative to grant Least Developed Countries (LDC's) duty-free and quota-free access to the US market.

"The E.U.-led initiative must be opposed. According to UN data, China (including Hong Kong) supplies 60% of the fabric needs for Bangladesh and Cambodia, the largest LDC exporters. With duty-free status, Chinese penetration of the US market would increase dramatically as US apparel imports would shift away from Western Hemispheric producers that use US-made components to producers in Bangladesh and Cambodia that would be using Chinese-made components. Such a result would certainly cause massive job losses in the United States and Latin America," said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organisations (NCTO). He also went on to note that textile and apparel trade associations in the AGOA/CAFTA/NAFTA/ANDEAN regions were all on record as opposing the LDC proposal.