Ireland

Agreement reached in Chinese textile row

A vendor waits for customers at an outdoor clothing in Beijing

Mon Sept 05 2005 - 01:00
A vendor waits for customers at an outdoor clothing in Beijing. The EU and China have reached an agreement, still to be approved by the 25 member EU States, on unblocking Chinese textile imports detained at European borders because of exceeded quota

China and the European Union reached an agreement today to unblock millions of Chinese garments held at EU borders because they exceed import quotas, an EU official said.

"I would like to confirm that Chinese and European negotiators have managed to reach an agreement on the textiles that were stopped in customs," EU Commission spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail told reporters in Brussels.

An EU official in Beijing had disclosed the deal earlier in the day under condition that he not be identified.

Le Bail described the deal as "equitable" and said both sides would share the burden of the extra imports this year.

READ MORE
It is acceptable to both sides and conducive to both the business communities and the consumers
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao

Officials said this would mean Beijing agreeing to count roughly half of the blocked goods as part of its 2006 EU export quota.

"I can assure you the result is fair and equitable," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said of the pact. "It is acceptable to both sides and conducive to both the business communities and the consumers," he told a news conference after the brief summit.

Using similar language, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the agreement "an amicable way to share the burden".

At stake in the marathon talks was how the two sides would revise a June 10th pact that allowed growth of between 8 and 12.5 per cent a year in 10 categories of Chinese textiles exports to the EU during the period 2005-2007.

Those quotas were quickly filled as buyers and sellers rushed to get in under the wire, leading to container-loads of goods worth hundreds of millions of euros being blocked across Europe.

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 clamoured for cuts in Beijing's import quotas for 2006 and 2007 in return for releasing the impounded goods. Beijing has resisted.

Compounding the problem is the fact that some of the textiles have landed in the EU without either a Chinese export licence or an EU import licence.