BRUSSELS, May 18: European clothing importers and retailers on Wednesday attacked European Union emergency measures to limit a surge in Chinese textile imports, in stark contrast to EU producers who said the action did not go far enough. The European Union’s executive arm launched emergency measures on Tuesday that could lead to limits on imports of Chinese-made T-shirts and flax yarn, if Beijing does not take action to rein in its exports.

“The point of emergency measures is that they should only be used in emergency situations,” said Jan Eggert, who heads the Foreign Trade Association which represents big European retailers C and A, Auchan and Inditex. “This is not the case here... The statistics available show that there is no disruption of the European market, far less an emergency,” he added.

But the European textile producers’ association Euratex was unimpressed with the measures, saying that other categories of clothing should be included to protect home-grown European clothing manufacturers.

“This is of course a first positive and encouraging sign on the part of the European Commission, and is what we have been pressing for over many weeks,” Euratex president Filiep Libeert said.

During a meeting with EC head Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday, Libeert raised concerns about “the unique phenomenon of predatory Chinese prices resulting from large-scale dumping”, Euratex said in a statement. —AFP