BEIJING, April 7: China on Thursday reacted furiously to new measures taken by the European Union and the United States against imports of Chinese textiles, calling the move a potential blow to the global clothing trade. Commerce ministry spokesman Chong Quan slammed the European Union after it unveiled “alert levels” for growth rates in Chinese clothing imports which will trigger investigations and informal consultations with China.
“This departs from the spirit of free trade proposed by Europe and seriously violates the basic principles of the World Trade Organization,” Chong said in a statement on the ministry’s website.
“It will have a negative impact not just on Sino-European textile trade, but on overall global textile trade,” he said.
Chong on Thursday also criticized the United States for launching a review to determine whether a recent surge in imports had disrupted the US market.
“We hope the United States will ... recognize the extreme sensitive and grave negative impact of special restrictive measures,” Chong said.
The European and US actions reflect a world coming to terms with the end on January 1 of a 31-year-old international textile import quota system.
The expiry of the system has left producers in developed and developing countries bracing for a wave of imports from China, whose manufacturers benefit from cheap labour and huge economies of scale.
Reacting to the groundswell for protectionist measures in the West against its textile exports, China insists it should not be penalized for having more competitive industries.
“As a responsible member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), China has taken a series of active measures to ensure the smooth transition to an integrated textile market,” said Chong.
“We hope the EU fully understands the efforts made by the Chinese in this respect and cautiously handles the issue. The overall trade relationship between China and the EU shouldn’t be impacted by unilateral moves,” he said.
According to the measures unveiled by the European Union on Wednesday, the “alert levels” range from 10 to 100 per cent growth over the 2004 trade volume, depending on the type of product.
“You can’t use export growth as the only measure for so-called ‘market disruption’,” Sun Huaibin, a spokesman of the China National Textile Council, told AFP.
Sun said the measure was “worse than expected” and suggested it had no basis in global trade rules.
“Following the end of the quotas, there is no legal basis for adopting this kind of even broader restrictive measure,” he said.
The system of “alert levels” means the EU, which is trying to build up strong commercial relations with China, is not going as far and as fast down the road to safeguards as a United States investigation into Chinese textiles.
The US garment industry on Wednesday demanded government action to curb 14 types of apparel exported from China as tensions over surging Chinese textile shipments escalated.
The National Textile Association (NTA) said urgent measures were needed in
addition to the US government’s announcement this week that
it has launched an investigation as a first step to slapping restrictions on the Chinese exports.
The NTA filed petitions with the government demanding the restoration of textile quotas that were scrapped globally on January 1, claiming that textile and apparel imports from China had leapt by 63 per cent since then.—AFP
