EU rejects hasty action against Beijing on textile trade clashes

30 May '05

3 min read

The European Union's top trade negotiator has dismissed the possibility of a trade war with China over surging Chinese textile imports and rejected "precipitate" EU action against Beijing. "There is no question of any diplomatic break or any sort of trade war between Europe and China," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said here Thursday after a meeting with Chinese Trade Minister Bo Xilai. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson shakes hands with Chinese Trade Minister Bo Xilai after a meeting in Paris focused on the sharp rise in Chinese textile exports to Europe May 5, 2005. Mandelson has dismissed the possibility of a trade war with China over surging Chinese textile imports and rejected 'precipitate' EU action against Beijing. "Both of us know there's much more at stake in the long term for trading and economic relations for Europe and China to allow the issue of textiles to undermine that strategic partnership." The EU executive commission last week launched an investigation into recent sharp increases in Chinese imports into EU countries that followed the abolition of a global quota system on January 1. The procedure, under World Trade Organization regulations, could lead to the imposition of temporary curbs on nine categories of Chinese textile imports. Bo stressed that China had been "very prudent" in managing the flow of EU-bound textile products and had adopted 10 measures that had already led to a "considerable" slowdown in the growth of such exports to

More Textiles News - France...