The United States is investigating more categories of textile goods imported from China, which has aroused China's strong objection, said Lu Jianhua, Director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing on Monday.

Since last May, the United States has put restrictive measures against seven categories of Chinese-made textile goods, including cotton shirts, trousers and man-made fiber underwear, based on its observation that an import surge from China had "caused market disruption" in the United States.

In addition, the United States has now started investigating Chinese woolen trousers and five other categories of Chinese textile goods.

The US Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), an inter-agency committee overseen by the US Commerce Department, recently accepted the application made by some US textile industry communities on imposing limits on imported Chinese curtains. The CITA has yet to decide whether to accept the application made by US domestic industry on imposing limits on five other categories, including Chinese-made pyjamas and swimming suits.

China believes that restrictive actions by the United States violate the free trade principles advocated by the World Trade Organization (WTO), conflicting with the premise conditions for using Article 242 in the legal documents concerning China's accession to the WTO, Lu said.

"This also ruins Chinese enterprise's deserved interests."

The United States, on the basis of statistics reflecting the situation in a short period, put restrictions on Chinese textile goods, which severely harmed the multilateral trade system, Lu said, noting that the Chinese government reserves the right to take further actions in the WTO framework.

Source: Xinhua