China and the United States have agreed to hold the next round of textile trade talks as soon as possible with smooth exchange channels maintained, said Lu Jianhua, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing on Monday.

When answering questions from the press, Lu said the United States had made it clear that it would use special restrictive measures against Chinese textiles very prudently.

China's central government pays intensive attention to the Sino-US textile disputes, showing great concern over difficulties encountered by Chinese textile enterprises due to US abuse of Article 242, Lu said.

Figures show in the first half of this year, China's textile exports grew 21 percent year-on-year to 50.35 billion US dollars, 8.34 billion of which were exports to the United States, up 76 percent.

During the just-concluded Sino-US annual session of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi told US trade officials that US frequent restrictions against Chinese textile goods severely harmed Chinese people's feelings as well as Chinese public confidence about the international multilateral trade systems, Lu said.

China has noticed that the US government recently delayed the decision on whether it will restrict Chinese woolen trousers and synthetic fiber cloth, said Lu.

According to Lu, the two countries have held two rounds of technical-level negotiations on the limitation of seven categories of textile goods.

China is willing to talk with the US side with an active and open mind so as to find solutions to the textile issue that can satisfy both sides, Lu said.

Source: Xinhua