| China Seeks Talks With United States, EU On Textiles, Urges Patience With Surges
International Trade Daily
17 March 2005 BEIJING--China hopes to hold talks with the United States and European Union over the surge in exports of textiles and apparel to those markets since the Jan. 1 lifting of quotas, a leading Chinese textile industry representative has said. Wang Shenyang, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Textiles (CCCT), was cited in the official China Daily on March 15 as saying China will soon send delegations to Washington and Brussels in an attempt to thwart potential restrictions on exports from China. The report did not mention details on the specific aims of the talks, except to cite Wang as saying he hoped the United States and EU would try to "improve communications and find solutions," rather than rush to take steps that would block free trade. In Washington, Neena Moorjani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said: "We understand that the Chinese are interested in meeting with us. Nothing has been set. We have an ongoing dialogue with them on trade issues, including textiles." An official at China's embassy in Washington, speaking on background, told BNA March 15 that he had not received a notification of a visit by a Chinese delegation. Additional calls to the embassy were not returned. Textile industry representatives in the United States and EU have been calling on their governments to implement safeguard measures in response to the jump in Chinese exports in January, the first month after the lifting of quotas (48 ITD, 03/14/05) (47 ITD, 03/11/05) . According to Wang's organization, clothing exports to the United States rose 80 percent in January from a year earlier, to $989 million, while textile exports rose 43 percent year-on-year, to $540 million. Situation Will Stabilize, China Says China's total textile and clothing exports to the EU were 47 percent higher than in January 2004, at about $1.5 billion. Wang attempted to ease concerns among importing countries, saying the rise in exports was a natural result of the lifting of quotas, and that the situation would soon stabilize. "It would be inappropriate [for the United States or the EU] to make a decision based on statistics from a single month," Wang said. "Exports are likely to abate after the initial surge." Wang added that part of the reason for the sudden leap in exports in certain categories was that some of the past quotas were unfair to Chinese exporters. While China produces about one-third of the world's trousers, the United States capped trouser imports from China at 3 percent of the total under the quota system, he said. China's exports of trousers to the United States jumped eightfold in January from a year earlier, according to figures confirmed by the CCCT. Wang urged patience, saying that China is working on its own to moderate its textile exports. A consortium of textile industry associations recently announced plans to implement a minimum pricing mechanism for sensitive exports, to mitigate unfair price competition by Chinese exporters (45 ITD, 03/9/05) . The government has imposed export tariffs on 148 textile and apparel products starting Jan. 1 (248 ITD, 12/29/04) , and it has recently implemented a new licensing system for exports, meant to allow for better monitoring and to alert exporters to any sudden shifts in outflows of certain products. Meanwhile, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson appeared to be backing off from his earlier warning about restrictive measures on imports from China. He told the European Parliament on March 15 that "safeguards would only be used as a last resort if large-scale trade disruption is being clearly demonstrated." U.S. textile groups called on the Bush administration March 11 to restrict immediately imports of textiles and apparel using a China textile safeguard mechanism in response to new Commerce Department data showing an increase in Chinese goods entering the U.S. market. China agreed to the safeguard as part of its World Trade Organization accession. It allows WTO members to limit textile and apparel imports from China to 7.5 percent above recent trade if Chinese goods are causing market disruption.
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