China has set up a special fund using revenues from textile
export tariffs to help improve the competitiveness and efficiency
of the textile industry.
The 1.36 billion-yuan-fund (US$170 million) will be used to
boost technical innovations in production, develop new fibers and
help make the industry more environmentally friendly and energy
efficient, said Zhang Li, an official with the Bureau of Economic
Operation under the National Development and Reform Commission.
"The government set up the fund out of concerns that the textile
industry faces increasing international trade disputes and urgently
needs to change its pattern of growth," said Zhang.
The European Union and the United States have set caps on
imports of Chinese textiles, arguing that a surge of Chinese
products have disrupted their markets.
Other countries like Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Turkey
all launched anti-dumping investigations into Chinese textile
exports.
To cope with the frequent trade frictions, the government has
been trying to encourage the textile industry to restructure
itself, upgrade technologies and develop more products with
proprietary intellectual property rights.
Meanwhile, China's textile sector is also strained by high
resource consumption and serious pollution, said Zhang.
The official noted that the printing and dyeing of fabrics makes
the industry the second largest consumer of water and the sixth
largest producer of wastewater of which only 7 percent is
recycled.
"Support from the fund is being offered on a one-time only
basis, but we are exploring a long-term mechanism," said Zhang.
China's textile exports surged 25.3 percent last year from 2005,
accounting for 15 percent of the country's total exports, according
to Zhang.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2007)