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p. 29 of 40 BACK | NEXT The WTO Tariff Concessions Non-Discrimination Principles Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade Services Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Textiles and Clothing Elimination of Quotas Expansion of Remaining Quotas Safeguards Agriculture Trade Remedies Dispute Settlement System Regional Arrangements WTO Application Process

World Trade Organization Toolkit : Textiles and Clothing

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a. Elimination of quotas

Under the ATC, WTO Members that maintain import quotas in textiles and clothing must progressively integrate the products concerned into the body of the GATT rules over a 10-year period. This process has to be carried out in four stages with all products standing integrated at the end of the 10-year period.

The first stage began on 1 January 1995 with the integration of products representing at least 16% of the volume of the Members' total imports in 1990.

At stage 2, on 1 January 1998, at least a further 17% was integrated.

At stage 3, on 1 January 2002, not less than a further 18% was integrated.

Finally, at stage 4, on 1 January 2005, all remaining products (amounting up to 49% of 1990 imports) will be integrated and the ATC will terminate.

This scheme was principally dedicated to those WTO Members which had previously imposed quantitative restrictions on textile and clothing products and wanted to keep them in effect: Canada, Norway, the US and the EU.

Each importing Member decides itself which products it wants to integrate at each stage to reach the above-mentioned thresholds. The only constraint is that the integration list must encompass products from each of the four groupings:

• tops and yarns
• fabrics
• made-up textile products
• clothing

Because integration applies to all of a Member's textile imports, and not merely to those already subject to restrictions, it may choose to put those products which have been unrestricted in the early stages. In practice, this has led to the situation where WTO Members have selected textile and clothing products in a way which has delayed the removal of those restrictions.

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