EU safeguard measures strongly opposed
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-29 22:05

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan yesterday stated the country's opposition to the European Commission's decision to launch safeguard measures on two categories of Chinese textiles.

A Chinese worker sews a dress in a garment manufacturing company at Huaibei, east China's Anhui province in this picture taken on May 19, 2005. China will raise export tariffs on exports of 74 classes of clothing and textile products from June 1, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, a gesture that might help to appease Western trading partners. [newsphoto]

"This procedure has hurt Chinese textile manufacturers' rights granted by global trade integration and has sent a wrong signal of trade protectionism to the European textile industry," he said.

Chong stressed that the Chinese Government expected to resolve the existing trade disputes through negotiation with the European side.

The European Union (EU) put its argument to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last Friday and asked China to adopt new measures to control its exports of T-shirts and flax yarn to European countries.

However, the step does not mean an end to negotiations, nor that the EU will take immediate action against Chinese textiles.

Instead, Claude Veron-Reville, the spokeswoman of European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, said consultations would be held between the two sides in the coming weeks in a bid to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Since the beginning of this year, China has adopted a series of measures to control textile exports, including imposing export tariffs on 148 categories of textiles and apparel products and strengthening self regulation among textile manufacturers and exporters.

Also, China's Ministry of Finance announced this month to increase the country's export tariffs on certain categories of textiles from June 1, in hopes of easing the concerns of trade partners.

The export duty on T-shirts was increased from 0.2 yuan (2.4 US cents) to 0.8 yuan (9.6 US cents) per unit. And flax yarn was hit with a new tariff of 3 yuan (36 US cents) per kilogram.

However, the European side argued that the impact of the tariffs would be too little too late, and insisted that China take quantitative control measures to curb the growth of exports.

The European Union claimed that its T-shirt imports from China rose 187 per cent in the first four months of this year from a year earlier and that imports of flax yarn also rose by 56 per cent year-on-year.

It said these increases had significantly hurt not only its domestic textile manufacturing industry but the textile manufacturers of other developing countries.

Close

Today's Top News     Top China News
China rips Japan's war-criminal remarks         EU safeguard measures strongly opposed         End in sight for tax breaks         3 in 5 Japanese oppose Koizumi's shrine visit         Mainland tourists may visit Taiwan soon         Protests in Middle East over US Koran abuse	China mulls derivatives market of futures trading       EU's call for textiles export caps opposed       Mainland tourists may visit Taiwan soon       Twelve trapped in E. China coal mine accident       Probe into boy stowaway incident ends       Japan off base at East China Sea gas issue