The reason why China's textile frequently encountered trade frictions early this year is fundamentally because of its rising competitiveness , said Du Yuzhou, chairman of China National Federation of Textile Industry, here Wednesday.

Speaking in an interview with Xinhua, the expert denounced some Chinese textile insiders' points that the frequent trade frictions should be ascribed to the overspeed and unhealthy development of the domestic textile.

He said the trade barriers just indicate a rising competitiveness of China's textile industry, because the foreign consumers will never pay for those "low-grade products."

In Japan, where the government does not set trade barriers against developing countries exports, China's textile accounts for 70 percent of the country's total import in this field.

The expert said this proves that China's textile possesses strong international competitiveness.

China achieved a textile and clothing export turnover of 97.3 billion US dollars last year, accounting for more than one quarter of the world's total.

Du said that during the past ten years, China's textile industry kept developing under the unremitting trade frictions.

In 1994, major textile import countries in North America and Europe applied a quota system to China's textile products, but this did not stop the growth of China's textile export, the expert said.

He said it is natural for a country to involve in trade frictions when it enters the international market. Since the 1960s, Japan had more than 20-year frictions with the United States and this is a typical illustration.

Yet the expert also noted that the trade barriers that are set by European countries and the United States against China's textile show a degradation of their free trade.

Those protective measures taken against China's export are the abuse of certain agreements of the WTO, and are not the legitimate ways to deal with the trade frictions in economic globalization.

China's textile industry should further improve its competitiveness through technological innovation so as to make more products with independent intellectual property rights, he said.

Source: Xinhua