The recent United States and European Union textile quotas will likely affect 400,000 Chinese workers in the industry, said a Chinese official at a forum in Ningbo, a city of east China's Zhejiang Province Thursday.

Cao Xinyu, vice-chairman of the China Textile Import and Export Chamber, also predicted that the trade dispute will cost China two billion US dollars.

The trade expert criticized the US and EU for their "outdated protectionist measures" and suggested that Chinese companies adapt their market strategies to possible global trade conflicts.

He hinted the Ministry of Commerce was formulating a series of administrative measures to rationalize export prices of Chinese textiles.

A white paper released by the Ministry of Commerce in April said that China will export 100 billion US dollars of textiles in 2005 amid difficulties.

Source: Xinhua