EURATEX confirms European Mfrs view that June 10th EU-CHINA textile/clothing deal be respected

31 Aug '05

3 min read

On behalf of EU textile and clothing manufacturers EURATEX today supported the 29th August statement of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson that “the primary shared interest and determination is to preserve the original overall agreement (reached between Commissioner Mandelson and the Chinese authorities on June 10th 2005 in Shanghai)”.

Speaking in Brussels today EURATEX President Filiep Libeert stressed that the fundamentals of the situation which had led to the bilateral agreement between the two sides had not changed in the three month period since the quantitative limits for the ten product categories had been agreed.

“Even before June 10th it was already abundantly clear that the EU was facing an unprecedented surge in many categories of textile and clothing products from China, and that measures were required to avoid the worst excesses of predatory pricing and the resultant job losses and company closures. Importers and distributors had been fully aware of the risks that such a surge could imply in the light of the special textile safeguard clause which was an integral part of Chinese accession to WTO. This too had been the subject of considerable discussion within the High Level Group on the future of textiles and clothing in the EU set up in 2004 by Commissioners Lamy and Liikanen which included representatives of importers and distributors and which in its report of June 30th 2004 called explicitly for the Commission to issue guidelines for the possible use of the above safeguard clause. No one then should claim that they were unaware of the risks involved in placing orders for huge quantities of Chinese goods for delivery in 2005” he said.

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