The US Customs Services says among its findings were: jogging suits, made in China, falsely identified as made in Turkey; Chinese-made cotton shorts and trousers with counterfeit certificates of origin from Mongolia; and thread, wool coats and other products wrongly identified as made in Hong Kong.
A production verification team from US Customs was sent to Fiji in 1994 to check out a factory shipping apparel products to the US. The company turned out to be non-existent and the certificates of origin which accompanied the clothing were false.
The customst has identified fraudulent shipments of 2 million Chinese-made garments.
worth $19 million falsely identified as manufactured in seven countries, including Italy, Venezuela and Panama.
Evidence of the findings were presented to Chinese officials by the US trade representative's office.
When the findings were not rebutted, the US trade representative's office decided to cut Chinese import quotas in 12 categories, officials said.
In some of the categories where there had been repeated violations, the US charged Chinese quotas triple the damages thought to have been incurred.
Although most bilateral textile pacts allow for triple damages, this is the first time the US has imposed them on the Chinese.
While Chinese exports to the US have been soaring
