A senior World Trade Organization ( WTO) official said on Tuesday in Beijing that he was "really disappointed" at recent unilateral moves made by the United States to restrict the imports of Chinese textiles and clothing.

Dr. Kipkorir Rana, deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization, said he is very disappointed because this (textiles and clothing) is one area where developing countries have comparative advantage.

"And in a multilateral trading system, this is the whole essence of the system that countries with comparative advantage in a free, liberalized economy take advantage of it," he said in an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the ongoing China Economic Summit 2005.

"So I hope this type of action is not going to reflect the opinion of the members. But I feel, China, and countries like Pakistan and India, have comparative advantage. They should export and benefit in a way that the system can be used.

"If people have grievance, they can come to the WTO. But they should not take unilateral action."

He said the WTO has that mechanism for members to solve trade disputes, but so far they have not used it. "Instead, they had taken unilateral action, which we tried to discourage members not to take that type of action."

"They should follow rules and multilateral trading system is very important for everybody."

He said the world has eliminated the trade-distorting quantitative restrictions, including the usage of quotas-imposing and other means to restrict market access. "There can surely be no going back," he said.

"We should take care not to reinvent inadvertently a system which we have spent the last 40 years trying to get rid of, in the process delivering a mortal blow to the multilateral trading system", he told the summit being held in Beijing.

The United States made a decision last week to reimpose restrictions on seven kinds of China textile and clothing imports. The European Union is also pressuring China to take more strict measures to curb textile exports to the European market.

China announced Friday it would raise export tariffs on 74 sorts of textile products, with a 400-percent hike for most of the products, beginning June 1, 2005.

That means the export tariffs on each piece of concerned textile or clothing product would increase from 0.2 yuan (2.4 US cents) to 1 yuan (12 US cents). But the new export tariffs for women's cotton overcoat and mantle would be 4 yuan (48 US cents), compared with the current 0.3 yuan (3.6 US cents), according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China's cabinet.

He urged WTO members to readjust their textile and clothing industry as the world has got rid of distorting quantitative restrictions on trade of textile goods, and called on some developed countries to safeguard the world trade system.

"Adjustments must be made by all Members involved in the trade of textile and clothing products, be they importers or exporters or both, be they big or small."

"It is recognized that with the elimination of quotas, some countries may face difficulties in the transition, but due restraint needs to be exercised by the Members to consolidate the credibility of the system," Rana said.

Source: Xinhua