Germany said on Friday that cheap Chinese textile imports into Germany have declined despite quotas being abolished at the start of the year.

The German Textile and Fashion Industry Federation said in Frankfurt that over all textile imports from China actually declined 4 percent in January and February in year-on-year terms to 4.5 billion euros (about 5.8 billion US dollars).

France, Italy and Spain have complained that the rising Chinesetextile exports hurt their domestic textile industry.

On Thursday, the European Commission launched an investigation into imports from China and may introduce restrictions on them.

Xinhua