Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said the surge of textile and garments' exports of the country is a "short-term phenomenon" in the wake of the elimination of quota regime.

When meeting with visiting Spanish Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Jose Montilla Thursday, Bo was quoted by Saturday's People's Daily as saying the United States and the European Union (EU) have decided to limit certain types of Chinese clothing imports, claiming that the surge has disrupted their markets.

Bo noted that relevant figures have proved that the exports of clothing began to decline since March.

The reason for China's textile and garments exports increase to the European and American developed nations in the first quarter of 2005, Bo explained, was because they retained 70 to 90 percent of the quotas till the last moment the quota regime had to be done away with.

Worldwide quota regime had to expire from Jan. 1, 2005, according to previous round of world free trade talks. The world had a 10-year transitional period to eliminate the regime on a step-by-step manner from 1995.

"(The surge) was normal if people consider that the world trade regime was undergoing from a distorted one to one of normal free trade," Bo acknowledged. "The surge was different from one under the normal trade conditions, and should be regarded as an outcome of China's balanced rights and obligations in its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)."

To allay world worry about the rise of clothing exports, China took a number of self-control measures including adding export tax on garments and textile goods from the beginning of the year. Consequently, China's exports of clothing dropped from last March.

The Chinese minister said China would not like to see the disputes in garment trade will do harms to the general trade between China and Spain.

China-Spain trade reached 7.3 billion US dollars last year, as against 120 million dollars in 1973 when the two nations forged their full diplomatic ties. China's clothing exports to Spain added up to 900 million US dollars last year, 12.4 percent of the total two-way trade between the two countries.

For his part, Minister Montilla said the Spanish government has come to realize the importance of world textile trade liberalization and urged Spanish clothing firms to look for new ways out. He expressed the belief that the current disputes would be appropriately resolved through dialogue and consultation.

In addition, Montilla appreciated China's efforts in keeping its pledges concerning its accession to the WTO, and said Spain hopes to uplift the level of cooperation with China in areas of tourism, finance and two-way investment.

Source: Xinhua