China will abolish export tariffs on 81 types of clothing and
textiles from June 1, the Finance Ministry said on Monday on its
website, days after the European Union (EU) sought emergency talks
on certain Chinese clothing exports.
The announcement said export tariffs on some products,
originally set to be raised or reduced from June 1 a few days ago,
will also be scrapped.
The move came amid a growing row with the US and the EU over a
surge in textile exports since global quotas were removed on
January 1.
The exemptions include tariffs on 78 categories of products that
were imposed from January 1. The total also includes two exemptions
announced previously, and the cancellation of a further tariff
announced on May 20.
On May 20, it was announced that tariffs on most of those
products would rise to 1 yuan ($0.121) per unit from 0.2 yuan, with
the largest tariff per item at 4 yuan. Products listed included
trousers, T-shirts and underwear.
In addition, under the approved adjustments, tariffs on three
categories of clothing, including women's knitted underwear and
men's cotton underwear, would be lowered from the current 0.20 yuan
to 0.05 yuan per unit.
However, the EU has argued that the impact of the tariffs would
be too little too late.
It claimed that its T-shirt imports from China rose 187 percent
in the first four months of this year from a year earlier and that
imports of flax yarn rose by 56 percent year-on-year.
It said these increases had significantly hurt not only its
domestic textile manufacturing industry but also textile
manufacturers of other developing countries.
EU safeguard measures on textiles opposed
Ministry of Commerce
spokesman Chong Quan yesterday stated the country's opposition to
the EU's decision to launch safeguard measures on two categories of
Chinese textiles.
"This procedure has hurt Chinese textile manufacturers' rights
granted by global trade integration and has sent a wrong signal of
trade protectionism to the European textile industry," he said.
Chong stressed that the Chinese Government expected to resolve
the existing trade disputes through negotiation with the European
side.
The European Union (EU) put its argument to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) last Friday and asked China to adopt new
measures to control its exports of T-shirts and flax yarn to
European countries.
But this move by the EU does not mean negotiations have come to
an end, neither does it mean that the EU will take immediate action
against Chinese textile exports.
Instead, Claude Veron-Reville, the spokeswoman for European
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, said consultations would be
held between the two sides in the coming weeks in a bid to reach a
mutually satisfactory agreement.
(China Daily May 30, 2005)