Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Flood Of Clothing Imports From China Worries U.S. Government And Workers, 04/11/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/cn_textiles-4-05.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Where is the clothing that you are wearing made?

2. What are imports and exports?

3. Does where a product comes from determine whether you purchase it? Explain.

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. How have Chinese textile imports changed in the last year? What is the cause of this change?

Imports of Chinese cotton knit shirts and blouses have grown approximately 1,250 percent, cotton pants 1,500 percent, and man-made fiber underwear 300 percent over this time last year.

This surge of clothing imports from China is the result of the December 2004 expiration of the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA), which gave developing countries access to international markets and bolstered job creation.

2. How have these changes impacted the U.S. textile industry?

According to a group of American fabric manufacturers, the National Council of Textile Organizations, the first three months of soaring import figures have resulted in the closing of at least 17 textile mills and 17,000 lost jobs for American garment workers since Jan. 1.

"This surge of imports from China is just the tip of the iceberg. If history is any indication, Chinese imports will continue to soar until they gain a virtual monopoly of the U.S. market," executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Committee Auggie Tantillo told the Delta Farm Press.

3. How are U.S. politicians reacting to the textile import situation?

Politicians in the United States are feeling pressure to act. When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it agreed to allow member countries to impose quotas -- limits -- if its exports harmed markets.

In response to the flood of Chinese apparel products, the U.S. government announced it would begin an investigation to determine whether or not to impose quotas.

4. How do some American clothing companies feel about the government's plan?

However, companies such as the Gap and J.C. Penney, which sell clothing, disagree with textile industry officials.

They argue that reestablishing quotas will raise prices for consumers without helping American workers.

The upsurge of Chinese imports is taking away business from other low cost Asian and Latin American countries and not causing U.S. job loss, they argue.

5. How are other countries impacted by the textile changes?

Other countries are also affected by the change. Southeast Asian and Latin American countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Honduras are now struggling to compete with China's manufacturing prowess.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Do you think it is important that the clothing you wear is made in the United States? Why? Would you be willing to pay more for clothing and goods that are manufactured in the United States? How much more? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

2. "Any attempt or moves to extend the quota system would go against the principle of free and fair trade and shakes the foundations of the multilateral trading system," spokesman Chong Wen said on China's commerce ministry Web site.

What is fair trade and what is a multilateral trading system? How are these regulated by the World Trade Organization?

3. If you were a politician representing a state that has a textile mill, how would you attempt to solve this dilemma? Would you attempt to impose quotas on imports? Why or why not? How might where you are from impact the decisions you make?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.