An industry group representing Japanese towel makers decided Friday to file a petition asking the government to invoke the "safeguard" clause in international trade rules to counter the recent surge of low-priced towel imports from China.
The Japan Towel Industrial Association will file the petition with the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry sometime this month, association officials said. The association made the decision at an emergency meeting.
According to industry figures, the volume of towel products imported to Japan in the first 11 months of last year rose 16.6 percent over the previous year to 59,000 tons, with China accounting for 80 percent of the imports.
"There are fears that the domestic towel industry will be destroyed (by the import surge)," Yoshihide Yoshihara, head of the association, told reporters.