The decision just made by the Chinese government to revoke export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products from June 1, 2005 is wise, Zhang Yansheng, director of the Foreign Economy Institute of the State Development and Reform Commission told Xinhua on Monday.

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China's cabinet, announced on Monday that the previous decision to quintuple the export tariffs on 74 textile categories, on which export tariffs were imposed from Jan. 1 this year, was revoked. The export tariff on flax yarn will also be abolished, said the Commission.

Zhang expressed hope that China will reach agreement with the United States and the European Union through negotiations and avoid trade war, saying the abolishment of textile export tariffs shows the Chinese government fully understands the enormous difficulty faced by Chinese enterprises.

Export tariff levy is a kind of voluntary measure taken by the government to limit export, and it is reasonable for the country to raise or revoke export tariffs under different circumstances, Zhang said.

Disregarding China's imposing export tariffs on 148 textile goods on Jan. 1 and raising tariffs on 74 textile goods in May, the United States and the European Union still announced restrictive measures and made no positive responses, which was quite "unfair" for China and Chinese textile companies, Zhang said.

The sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union, which are the most important export markets for Chinese textile, will affect 19 million Chinese textile workers and tens of millions of farmers providing raw materials, Zhang said.

"So it is very timely and necessary for the country to revoke export tariffs on some textile goods." The abolishment of such tariffs also benefits the US and EU consumers, Zhang said.

Source: Xinhua