EU Trade Commissioner comments on EU textiles in China
27 Dec '07
3 min read
On market access, we will be seeking new access for textile goods in the Do ha Round and in all our new FTAs. We have also set up a specific working group for textiles as part of the renewed Market Access Strategy.
Europe is well poised to exploit huge new markets for consumer goods in the emerging economies - and we will not simply be sitting back and hoping these trends go our way.
Counterfeiting is, if anything, an even greater problem. Protecting trademarks and design rights are absolutely central to the textile industry and I raise these issues with the Chinese in every single meeting I have with them. We have done some useful collaborative work with the Chinese custom's service, and trade fair organisers and the Chinese patent office.
But on balance, China remains a huge problem for intellectual property rights holders. The counterfeit markets are cleared out one day, and the traders creep back in the next. As I have said in the past, we have not ruled out the prospect of using the WTO if the situation does not improve.
The Summit: Last month at the EU-China Summit in Beijing I was very careful to pass some frank messages - and they apply in the textiles sector as much as anywhere. The EU - China trade relationship has been transformed in the last two decades. Both sides have benefited from it immensely.
But it has become badly imbalanced. While China dominates our import markets, our businesses are losing out in China because of counterfeiting and market access barriers, amounting to 55 million euros a day in lost business opportunities. Our spiralling trade deficit reflects both of those things.
marketing@alchempro.com
