Textile companies in ambiguous state – no space for US exports

23 Jun '05

3 min read

China's textile companies may find themselves facing an ambiguous situation of "no quotas left" in the second half of this year when they want to export to the United States as the US repeatedly sets limits on China's textile products, said spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce Wednesday.

As the United States repeatedly sets limits on China's textile products and the limits are very narrow, the spokesman said, the exportable quantity of some categories of textile products has been almost used up.

China is negotiating with the U.S. on the seven types of textile products which have been set with limits by the US, said the spokesman.

He noted that China has released a temporary regulation to manage China's textile exports, but whether or not such a regulation will be applied to exports to the U.S. will be decided in the negotiations.

"From the current point of view, by the day the regulation takes real effect on July 20, China's textile companies might find themselves left with no further exportable quotas to the U.S.," said the spokesman.

The ministry released the regulation last Sunday, deciding to resume its license system of textile exports to some countries. The measure is expected to take effect on July 20. Currently, the measure is mainly engaged in textile exports to the European Union on ten categories of products.

In the past 20-odd years, China used the license system, as there were export quotas in international trade. On Jan. 1, 2005, the quotas were revoked and Chinese companies began to enjoy the benefit of free trade.

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