Yu Guangzhou, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce expressed his confidence on China's ability of dealing with the challenge posed by special safeguard actions against Chinese textiles by the US and EU.

He made the remarks on April 14 in Guangzhou where the 97th Chinese Export Commodities Fair opens today.

He thinks Chinese textile trade performs well so far since the textile quota was removed on January 1 this year. Exports of Chinese textile and clothing experienced "reasonable growth" over the same period of last year.

He attributed the considerable increase in some textile exports to certain countries and regions to the quota elimination. He promised that the Chinese government would seek win-win solutions to address this issue positively. He noted that a package of measures, including consultations and self-disciplined steps, to solve the dispute on textile trade.

Yu forecasts a good year of steady and balanced development for China��s imports and exports for 2005.

Statistics shows that China managed a foreign trade of some 295 billion USD for the first quarter of the year, an upsurge of some 30 percent over the first three months of last year. The exports stand at 160 billion USD, rising about 35 percent.

The European Commission expects to decide on whether to launch an investigation on restricting cheap Chinese textile imports next week if full and reliable data on textile imports from China since the beginning of the year is available by then.

By People's Daily Online