A deal struck early on Monday (5 September) to unblock millions of Chinese textiles stuck at the EU's borders involves sharing the responsibility between the EU and Chinese exporters.
Commission officials hope the details of the agreement will be hammered out by member states on Tuesday (6 September), which could lead to release of the jumpers, trousers and bras as early as next week.
"I can assure you the result is fair and equitable", Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao told journalists at a press conference, adding "It is acceptable to both sides and conducive to both the business communities and the consumers".
Around 75 million garments have been stockpiled at European ports, as a result of an EU quota scheme, introduced in mid-June, to curb the soaring Chinese imports of cheap textiles and protect domestic producers.
Brussels and Beijing decided they would split the responsibility for the blocked items in half, with all of them to be released to European retailers.
This means, for example, that for the most overfilled category - pullovers - with a total of around 50 million garments, both sides will "take care" of 25 million.
Beijing will change the pullover quotas for unfilled cotton quotas (the only category out of ten not filled yet), and also count around 10 million pieces against the 2006 limits, meaning it will be allowed to export less items next year.
The same burden-sharing principle will be applied to other categories, mainly trousers and bras as the two other most overfilled garments.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
