China warns against hasty safeguards on textile exports

China has cautioned its peers against any hasty implementation of safeguard mechanisms to restrict its booming textile exports, warning such measures would run counter to free trade principles.

Following the end of quotas regulating the global apparel trade, Chinese textile exports to the United States in January jumped 65 percent, highlighting concerns China would benefit most from the end of the quota system.

Similarly, to Germany, the European Union's biggest buyer of Chinese textiles, exports rose 46 percent, part of a total gain of 28 percent in the month as China built on increases of over 35 percent in both 2003 and 2004.

The spike in exports has already resulted in calls from Brussels and Washington for "safeguard" mechanisms, which under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would allow for new limits on specific Chinese goods.

"The reason that they removed the quotas on January 1 was so that trade can be freer so to go back and put more restrictions on trade is going against the free trade that everyone wants," Sun Huaibin, spokesman for the China National Textile Council, told AFP.

"You have to look at the overall trends; you can't implement new quotas just months after lifting them."

China's products are competitive on the world market as they offer good value to consumers, Sun said, so based on this principle they should continue to enjoy access to global markets under WTO rules.

China, which is concerned about creating jobs for its 1.3 billion people, has also taken measures -- such as a recently implemented export tax and new regulations on issuing export permits -- in an effort to ensure that no destabilizing surges in Chinese exports hit global markets, he said.

In his address to parliament on March 5, Premier Wen Jiabao set China's total export growth target for 2005 at 15 percent, apparently reflecting concerns from the US and EU over the expected increase in textile exports.