China and the United States will hold the fifth round of talks on textiles from Sept. 26 to 27 in Washington D. C., and Chinese experts said it is hard for the two sides to make important breakthroughs due to their distinct divergence.

Although the two sides claimed that they adopted flexible stances in the fourth round textile talks and their points of view have become closer, marked divergence still exists on many important issues, said Zhao Yumin, an expert with China Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Due to notable divergence on the range for restrictive measures,growth rate and cardinal number, there is still a long way to go before new agreement is reached, Zhao said.

The United States overcharges China through setting rigorous time limit for restrictive measures and rigid growth rates that China cannot accept, she said.

Considering the rank of officials participating the talks, it is of little possibility for the two sides to reach an all-round agreement, she said. Chinese chief negotiator will be Lu Jianhua, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce while David Spooner, special negotiator for textile at the US Trade Representative's office, is his American counterpart.

Sun Huaibin, spokesman for the China Textile Industry Council, also said it is of little hope to reach agreement in the fifth round textile talks. China's textile industry wishes for an early agreement between the two countries so as to reduce losses caused by uncertainties, Sun said.

The uncertainties caused by US restrictive measures have affected the normal bilateral trade, said he, estimating that China's textile export to the United States has been reduced by at least 2 to 3 billion US dollars since this year.

Since the elimination of the global textile quota on Jan. 1, 2005, the United States claimed that the surge of textile import from China has disrupted its domestic market.

Since May this year, the US government altogether put all kinds of restrictive measures against 21 categories of Chinese textile products, which aroused strong objection from China.

So as to solve the problem, the two countries have held four rounds of textile talks, with no substantive agreement reached.

Source: Xinhua