If further losses were to occur for the sector during the transitional period, the agreement allowed for the temporary imposition of additional restrictions under strict conditions. These transitional safeguards were not the same as the safeguard measures normally permitted under GATT, as they may apply to imports from certain exporting countries. However, the importing country had to demonstrate that its domestic industry had suffered serious damage or threatened serious damage. It also had to demonstrate that the injury was caused by two factors: an increase in imports of the product in question from all sources and a significant and significant increase from the exporting country concerned. The restriction of protection could be implemented either by mutual agreement, after consultation, or unilaterally. It was checked by the Textile Monitoring Centre. In any system setting quotas for individual exporting countries, exporters could try to circumvent quotas by sending products through third countries or by providing false information about the country of origin of the products. The agreement contained provisions to deal with these cases. Products subject to GATT rules in each of the first three stages had to include the four main types of textiles and clothing: top and yarn; substances; processed textile products; and clothing.

All other restrictions not covered by the Multifibre Agreement and not in conformity with WTO regular agreements until 1996 had to be brought into conformity or phased out by 2005. Textiles and clothing products were reintroduced into GATT rules for a period of ten years. This was done gradually in four stages, in order to give importers and exporters time to adapt to the new situation. Some of these products were previously under quota. Any quotas in force on 31 December 1994 have been included in the new Agreement. For products that had quotas, the result of integration into GATT was the abolition of these quotas. The agreement set the percentage of products which, at each stage, were to be subject to GATT rules. If one of these products was under quota, the quotas had to be abolished at the same time. The percentages were applied in 1990 to the trade volumes of importing countries in textile and clothing trade. The agreement also stipulates that the import volumes allowed under the quotas must increase each year and that the rate of expansion must increase at each stage. The speed of this expansion was defined in a formula based on the growth rate of the old multifibre chord (see table).

Under the Multifibre Agreement (Multifibre and Multifibre Agreement), the United States and the European Union (EU) have restricted imports from developing countries in order to protect their domestic textile industry. Under the agreement, quotas (numerically limited quantities) of certain items were allocated to each signatory country that could be exported to the US and the EU. (Note that at the beginning of the agreement, the UNION did not exist in its current form, which included the then European Community (EC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The agreement was first established under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that existed at the time. .