U.S. imports of these products reached a record 22.9 billion equivalent square meters (SMEs) valued at $54 billion in 1997, according to the report. The 1997 increase in percentage terms was the largest since 1986, and it marked the first time in five years that annual import growth exceeded 10 percent.

The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, recently released the report as the last in a series of annual statistical reports on imports of textiles and apparel covered by the 1974 Multifiber Arrangement (MFA). On January 1, 1995, the MFA was replaced by the Uruguay Round Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, which calls for a phaseout of quotas set under the MFA by January 1, 2005. Following are other highlights of the report.

• The shift in U.S. textile and apparel imports continued in 1997, with countries benefiting from preferential market access (NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) countries) assuming a growing role. Imports from Mexico rose by 38 percent to 3 billion SMEs valued at $5.9 billion in 1997 and have more than tripled since NAFTA's enactment in 1994. Mexico is the largest supplier by quantity (13.3 percent of the total) and the second-largest by value (11 percent) after China.

• Sector imports from Canada rose by 16 percent in 1997, to 2.1 billion SMEs valued at $2.4 billion, making Canada the third-largest supplier by quantity after Mexico and China.

• CBI shipments grew by 25 percent in 1997 to almost 3 billion SMEs valued at $7.7 billion. CBI countries as a group are the second-largest source by quantity after Mexico with 13 percent of the total quantity, and the largest by value with 14.2 percent of the total in 1997.

• Sector imports from Asia rebounded by 17 percent in 1997, to 12 billion SMEs valued at $30.7 billion. Asia supplied 52 percent of the 1997 import quantity, down slightly from 54 percent in 1996 and 63 percent in 1993. China remained the largest supplier by value in 1997, and the volume of its shipments rose for the first time in three years, by 27 percent, to 2.1 billion SMEs valued at $6 billion.

• The traditional Big Three Asian suppliers of textiles and apparel -- Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea -- continued to decline in relative importance. U.S. imports of such goods from the Big Three rose by 2 percent in 1997, to 2.9 billion SMEs valued at $9.2 billion. The Big Three supplied 12.6 percent of the total quantity of U.S. MFA-product imports in 1997, down from 14.8 percent a year earlier and from more than 30 percent in the 1980s.

• Sector imports from the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam -- together rose by 20 percent in 1997, to 2.6 billion SMEs valued at $6.5 billion. Significant growth also continued to occur in U.S. imports from South Asia, led by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Imports from these four countries grew by a combined 23 percent in 1997 to 3.4 billion SMEs valued at $6.1 billion.

• Imports of textiles and apparel from sub-Saharan Africa partially recovered in 1997, rising by almost 9 percent, to 144 million SMEs valued at $455 million. They had fallen by 1.4 percent in 1995 and by 9.1 percent in 1996.

The ITC report Annual Statistical Report on U.S. Imports of Textiles and Apparel: 1997 (USITC publication 3102, April 1998) will be available on the ITC's Internet server at www.usitc.gov. A printed copy may be requested by calling 202-205-1809 or by writing the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street, SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may be faxed to 202-205-2104.