Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reminded the EU Wednesday of the good relationship China and the EU enjoy and said they should work to resolve the textile trade disputes.

Wen told the European Union foreign ministers, who are on the first official visit to China, that the two sides need to work together to settle the trade disputes while keeping China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership relations in mind.

"We should start from the general situation of maintaining the comprehensive strategic partnership relations between China and the EU, strengthen dialogue and exchanges on an equal footing and seek an appropriate way to resolve the trade issues," Wen said during a meeting with EU "troika" foreign ministers -- Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and British Foreign Secretary's representative, the British Ambassador to China Christopher Hum.

The United States and the European Union, at the request of producers who claimed that they were hurt by a flood of Chinese textiles, started procedures at the end of April that could lead to limitation of imports of Chinese textile products.

Chinese Trade Minister Bo Xilai called on the European Union (EU) last week not to exaggerate the textile issue. He spoke during his meeting with EU's Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in Paris, saying limitation on Chinese textile products not only harms China's interests but also damages the interests of EU importers, retailers and consumers.

Worldwide textile quotas were eliminated at the beginning of the 2005 as a result of the previous round of world free trade negotiations. China has imposed export tariffs on textile exports in a bid to ease world worries of an export surge of textile goods.

The Chinese premier stressed that China's self-imposed measures on textile exports have born positive results. He promised China will take more "effective measures" to exercise a "macro-control" of the textile sector in China.

"We will take further economic measures to prevent an excessive growth of China's textile and garment exports," Wen said. "Those measures are also aimed at restructuring China's textile sector and ensuring a healthy, sustainable growth of the sector."

China-EU trade hit 177.3 billion US dollars in 2004, up 73 times from that in 1975 when China and the European Community forged full diplomatic relations. The European Union became China's top trade partner last year after it expanded to 25 members. China was EU's second largest trade partner.

Source: Xinhua