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Sock quota spurs debate
By: Jonathan Kaminsky
Times-News
Since January, Nim Harris has laid off 40 workers at Pickett Hosiery Mills. These are the first layoffs in his 34 years with the Burlington sock plant.
His company is among the lucky ones. At least 16 hosiery mills have closed in North Carolina since the beginning of 2004. They are victims, says Harris, of inexpensive Chinese sock imports.

"When the Chinese can put socks on the counter cheaper than we can buy the yarn," says Harris, "something’s wrong."
Harris supports an effort spearheaded by four American textile manufacturing groups to renew quotas, or "safeguards," on Chinese sock exports to the United States that are set to expire in October.
Without the limits, he says, his company, with its 90 remaining employees, is likely to go out of business.

Most large American sock companies, which have in the past few years shifted much of their manufacturing work to China, oppose such quotas.
Gold Toe Socks, whose sole remaining American factory is in Burlington, is "on the free trade side of the fence," says its vice president of operations, Bill Sheely.
"People that want to throw up quotas want to limit the choice of American consumers," he says. "They do not wish for a market-based system."
Besides, he says, if Gold Toe â€â€