Hopes for negotiated solutions to textile disputes were
expressed in Brussels and Beijing yesterday regarding meetings with
EU and US officials this week, in tune with the opinions of
delegates attending a textile trade fair in Hangzhou, capital
city?of Zhejiang
Province?on Sunday.
European Commission spokesperson Francoise Le Bail told Xinhua
News Agency that "the aim of the upcoming talks is to find a
satisfactory solution acceptable to both sides," referring to this
afternoon's meeting in Brussels between Vice Commerce Minister Gao
Hucheng and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
State Councilor Tang
Jiaxuan told US Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, visiting
Beijing, that China hopes to solve trade disputes through dialogue
and consultation, and to avoid mixing trade issues with
politics.
Last Friday, China announced that it would raise export tariffs
on 74 textile product categories as from June, with some increases
as high as 400 percent. Le Bail welcomed the move, saying the EU
would wait to see whether it had the desired effect.
In line with WTO agreements, quotas on textiles were lifted on
January 1 this year, but the US has re-imposed them and the EU has
threatened to, saying that huge increases in Chinese textile
imports had disrupted their domestic markets.
A delegation of 72 US and EU textile buyers and 14
representatives of US textile associations arrived in the eastern
city of Hangzhou on Sunday to meet Chinese textile
manufacturers.
Yu Xiaosong, former president of the China Council for the
Promotion of International Trade, said at the event that "textile
associations from China and the US should establish a relationship
to move away from trade barriers and deal directly with conflicts
of interest."
Fawn Evenson, vice president of the American Apparel and
Footwear Association said US quotas were a last-ditch strategy to
save jobs, but could end up hurting US companies more than anybody
else since the products blocked were bought and resold by American
manufacturers.
Jeff Coey, director of the US Cotton Council International for
China and Southeast Asia, told Xinhua on Monday that it was
unworkable for the US to sell cotton to China but block products
made from it from being exported back to the US.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily May 24, 2005)