China’s Experience Under the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) and the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC)

This paper analyzes China’s experience under U.S. apparel and textile quotas. It makes use of a new database that tracks U.S. trading partners’ performance under the quota regimes established by the global Multifiber Arrangement (1974 to 1995) and subsequent Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (1995 to 2005). We find that China was relatively more constrained under these regimes than other countries and that, as quotas were lifted, China’s exports grew disproportionately. When the ATC finally ended in 2005, China’s exports surged while those from nearly all other regions fell.