China, EU textile jam continues

The Chinese side expressed great concern over the Communist country’s textile stockpile at EU customs, while the EU admitted the policy did not meet the interests of its domestic traders and consumers, China Daily quoted the statement as saying on Friday.

The EU delegation was headed by Fritz-Harald Wenig, the trade director of the European Commission. Chinese negotiators were led by the director of Mofcom’s Foreign Trade Department, Lu Jianhua.

According to statistics published by EU Customs on Wednesday, eight of the 10 categories of Chinese textiles have already reached their quota limit, set in June.

The June agreement restricts annual growth of EU textile imports from China to 8-12.5 per cent over the coming three years.

Forty-eight million sweaters, 17 million pairs of trousers and hundreds of tonnes of other textile products are piling up at EU borders, unable to access the market, according to the report.

“We hope the EU will at least accept shipments for orders agreed before the textile disputes began,” Vice-Chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Textiles, Cao Xinyu said.

Xinyu explained that when the quota-free era began in January, importers and exporters had not even considered the possibility of caps being introduced after just a few months.

China and the EU have to consider how many categories will be covered by the new amendment; and whether to increase the quotas for this year or to start eating into the quotas for next year, said Mei Xinyu, a trade analyser from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation, the thinktank of Mofcom.

If they decide to use the quotas from next year, the two sides have to take into account whether this will result in additional troubles in 2006, Xinyu added. — PTI