Foreign trade official Lu Jianhua says trade hit due to US textile restrictions
01 Aug '05
10 min read
During the visit of US Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez and Trade Representative Portman, and the 16th China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, Vice Premier Wu Yi held serious talks with them twice on the textile issue, explicitly referring to it as a major problem in the development of China-US economic and trade relations. She said the US frequent application of restrictive measures by abusing Paragraph 242 has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, and their confidence in the multilateral trading system.
She demanded the US to fully recognize the seriousness of the issue and actively facilitate its early solution. Minister Bo Xilai has also negotiated with the US side on the textile issue taking advantage of the occasions of the OECD, APEC and WTO mini-ministerial meetings. After these negotiations, at the JCCT concluded not long ago, the US clearly committed to acting with caution when applying special restrictive measures. We have also taken note of the US government's suspension of the decision on whether or not to take restrictive measures on yarn of other synthetic staple fibres mixed with cotton and trousers of wool.
Moreover, China has had two rounds of technical-level consultations with its US counterpart on the restrictions on 7 textile categories, during which China, following the elaboration of its positions, put forward suggestions on such issues as growth rates of and bilateral administrative cooperation on the restricted products. The US side promised to carefully study on China's proposals. The two sides agreed to keep the communication channels smooth and to hold the next round of consultations at an early date. On the issue of China-US textile trade, China is ready to have dialogues with the US in an earnest and open way on the basis of equality and mutual benefit in order to find solutions to the satisfaction of both sides.
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