Government Web site to provide import data

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/22/2005 12:54:00 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Commerce has initiated a new system to monitor imports of textiles and apparel products.

According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the system will allow the department and the public timely access to preliminary textiles and apparel data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (aggregated on a category basis), allowing decision makers to more quickly analyze the impact of imports on the U.S. market. The department anticipates that the new system will be in place by the first week in April 2005, at which time preliminary data on textiles and apparel imports for the first quarter of the year should be available. The preliminary data will be posted biweekly on a Web site maintained by the department's International Trade Administration Office of Textiles Department and Apparel at http://otexa.ita.doc.gov.