Spain backs EU-China deal on textiles

The Spanish government "highly values" the agreement between the European Union (EU) and China on Chinese textile exports, a senior Spanish official said Saturday.

At the opening ceremony of new facilities of the Catalonia Tennis Federation at Cornella, Spain's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Jose Montilla said he believed the document "respects the will of the 25 EU countries."

His remarks came one day after the EU and China hammered out an agreement to manage the growth of Chinese exports of textile and clothing to the EU in the coming three years, staging a smooth transition before completely opening the EU market to Chinese textile exports in 2008. Montilla said the agreement "is the best for Europe and also for China."

"Now the European textile industry has to make additional efforts to improve its productivity and capacity of innovation to go for higher value-added products," he said.

Source: Xinhua