US, China plan fresh talks next month: Textiles row
WASHINGTON, Sept 29: The United States and China plan another round of talks on a drawn-out battle over textiles trade next month after their latest negotiations here ended without agreement, officials said on Thursday.
“We were able to make progress, particularly with product coverage and quota levels, but we did not reach an agreement with the Chinese,” chief US negotiator David Spooner said in a statement.
“We will be meeting with the Chinese again next month and will be consulting with them soon on the location and exact date of the next round of negotiations,” he said after the meeting ended on Wednesday.
Chinese officials in Beijing also confirmed plans for a new round of talks to forge an overarching agreement to regulate Chinese textile shipments, which have soared since global quotas were scrapped on January 1.
Since then, the US government has slapped what it calls “cumbersome” quotas on individual categories of Chinese textile exports in response to demands for action from the US industry.
“However, our preference is to seek a longer-term solution that will permit the orderly development of textile and apparel trade,” Spooner said.
“But the United States will have no hesitation in walking away from a bad deal,” he reiterated.
In Beijing, the Ministry of Commerce said “the two sides made positive progress in the talks, but some differences remain as well”.
“Both sides agreed to hold the next rounds of talks as quickly as possible and fix the time and place for them through diplomatic channels,” it said in a statement.
The Washington meeting had been extended into a third day on Wednesday to give negotiators more time to narrow their yawning differences.
But US industry sources said that China remained wedded to a “hardline” position it was said to have adopted in two previous rounds of talks in Beijing and San Francisco.
Chinese textile exports to the United States have rocketed by an average of 627 per cent since January 1, according to US industry figures.
Nearly 400,000 textile and apparel manufacturing jobs in the United States have been lost since 2001, primarily due to a flood of subsidised Chinese clothes, the industry alleges.
