If further losses were to occur during the transition period for the sector, the agreement allowed for the temporary imposing of additional restrictions under strict conditions. These transitional guarantees were not in line with the usual GATT safeguards, as they can be applied to imports from certain exporting countries. But the importing country had to prove that its domestic industry had suffered serious damage or that it was at risk of serious damage. It also had to show that the damage was the result of two factors: an increase in imports of the affected product from all sources and a significant and significant increase from the exporting country concerned. The limitation of protection could be implemented either by mutual agreement, after consultation or unilaterally. It was inspected by the textile watchdog. At the beginning of 2005, China`s exports of textiles and clothing to the West increased by 100% or more in many respects, leading the United States and the EU to highlight China`s WTO accession agreements, which allowed them to limit the growth rate to 7.5% per year until 2008. In June, China agreed with the EU to limit the rate to 10% for three years. No such agreement was reached with the United States, which reported its own import growth rate of 7.5%. [Citation required] The agreement was concluded for the first time under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Origins (1) recognized both the threat to developed markets of imports of cheap clothing and textiles in terms of market disruptions and the impact on their own producers, and (2) the importance of such exports to developing countries for their own economic development and as a means of diversifying export earnings. Another explanation for China`s low share of cotton pants imports into the United States is the role played by preferential trade agreements in the U.S. textile trade.

Although much of the U.S. cotton pants trade was marked by the AMF, more than half of the 149 million cotton pants imported by the United States in 2004 were imported outside the AMF. Most of these imports came from neighbouring countries, due to preferential access through the nafta, the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and the Andean Preferences Act.