The Chinese government will not sit by and watch domestic textile companies suffer from "double pressure," said Bo Xilai, minister of commerce, Monday.

As the United States and the European Union took restrictive measures against China's textiles, China announced Monday morning it would no longer impose export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products, beginning June 1, 2005.

A previous decision to quintuple the export tariffs on 74 textile categories was revoked at the same time.

At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Bo said if there are any restrictive measures taken against any kinds of Chinese textiles, the Chinese government will exclude these products from the list of imposed export tariffs.

To restrain the fast increase of China's textile exports to the United States and the EU, the Chinese government imposed export tariffs on 148 categories of textile products at the beginning of 2005. On May 20, it quintupled the export tariffs on 74 textile categories.

However, the United States and the EU still took restrictive measures against seven and two kinds of Chinese textile products respectively.

"So long as the two parties have made restrictions on quantity, how is the Chinese government to collect export tariffs on them?" Bo said.

"As you place pressure on Chinese companies, the only thing that the Chinese government can do is to reduce their burden," he said.

He said the restrictive measure have brought direct losses to Chinese companies. The US decision affected a 2 billion US dollars export market with 160,000 employees, and the EU's decision affected exports of 300 million dollars.

The textile industry, involving 19 million employees, is one of the most important in China, he said.

Every textile product that the United States and the EU have restricted involves at least 1,000 Chinese companies, he said.

The Chinese government is concerned with the textile issue and will help domestic companies pull through, Bo said.

Source: Xinhua