EU, China reach agreement on textile imports (Reuters) Updated: 2005-09-05 16:54 Those quotas were quickly filled as buyers and sellers rushed to get in under
the wire, leading to containerloads of goods worth hundreds of millions of euros
being blocked across Europe.
|
Chinese vendors wait for customers at a clothing market in Hefei,
east China's Anhui province September 1, 2005.
[newsphoto] | Countries with strong retail
sectors, such as the Nordic states and Germany, have demanded the swift release
of the goods.
But EU member states with large textile industries of their own, such as
France, Italy and Spain, have clamored for cuts in Beijing's import quotas for
2006 and 2007 in return for releasing the impounded goods. Beijing has resisted.
Compounding the mess is the fact that some of the textiles have landed in the
EU without either a Chinese export licence or an EU import licence.
Details of the proposed solution were not available but the EU official said
it was within the terms of the June agreement.
"The EU and China propose to share the burden equitably in accounting for the
unlicensed textiles currently held in customs," the source, who declined to be
named, said.
China, which enjoys immense economies of scale thanks to its modern factories
and cheap labor, has seen a surge in exports not only to the EU but also to the
United States following the abolition of global textile quotas on Jan. 1.
Washington has slapped emergency curbs on an array of Chinese garment and
textile exports but has failed to negotiate a replacement pact along the lines
of the EU's June deal.
|
| | Relief materials from China heading to the US | | | | | Gas burning kills 17 miners in Shanxi | | | | | Blair tries football skills among Chinese kids | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top China
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|