Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi criticizes US for trade barriers

13 Jun '05

2 min read

At the Pacific Basin Economic Council's annual meeting, Hong Kong's convention center Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi furiously criticized the US for restricting textile imports from China, saying that America should have organized to resolve the trade friction with trade talks.

Wu said that it was but natural for countries to have some friction as global trade ties economies closer together. "The factor is how to handle this friction," she added.

Wu said that the US decision to restricting Chinese textile imports by 7.5 percent cap resulted serious damage to the Country's businesses.

The US should initially try to resolve such trade frictions with negotiation, she added.

The US and the EU have claimed that cheap Chinese textiles surge into their markets is hurting their industries and resulted thousands of job losses.

The EU and China agreed on to curb the Chinese textile exports. The deal permits gradually rising restriction on allowed increase in Chinese textile exports to EU over the next three years, with all limits to be eliminated by 2008.

The new deal would be effective from Saturday and will be calculated on the basis of Chinese textile imports in the first two or three months of 2005, the first year in which Chinese exports were not restricted by quotas.

However, till now China has no agreement with the US on the issue of textiles trade disputes.