The Hindu : Business : China revokes export tariffs on textiles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Business

Business

China revokes export tariffs on textiles

Wants to avoid "double pressure" on its exports; ready for talks

BEIJING: China announced on Monday that it would no longer impose export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products as of June 1, 2005.

A previous decision to quintuple the export tariffs on 74 textile categories, on which export tariffs were imposed from January 1 this year, was revoked, according to sources from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China's Cabinet. The export tariff on flax yarn will also be abolished, the Commission said.

"If some countries have imposed restrictive measures upon China's textile goods, then China needs to revoke export tariffs on these goods, because the country cannot make its textile export shoulder double pressures," said Chinese Minister of Commerce at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

"Since the U.S. and the European Union (EU) have imposed quantitative restrictions on China-originated textile goods, how can the Chinese government continue to impose export tariffs?" Mr. Bo said. The Chinese government must treat their enterprises fairly, he added.

Monday's decision was announced in the wake of the EU decision to impose quotas on imports of Chinese textiles, as well as U.S. decision to re-impose restrictions on seven kinds of Chinese textile and clothing imports recently.

On January 1, 2005, when the global textile quotas were eliminated, China voluntarily imposed export tariffs on some textile goods so as to limit its export growth. On May 20, China again decided to raise the export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products, with a 400 per cent hike for most of the products.

The U.S. and the EU, disregarding these voluntary measures taken by China however, still imposed strict restrictive measures on textile import from China since the beginning of this year.

"If developed countries had eliminated their textile quota restrictions step by step, the surge of Chinese textile exports to their markets this year would be avoided,"said Mr. Bo Xilai.

The U.S. and the EU retained most of their quota restrictions on competitive textile products from developing countries to the last minutes, which led to the rapid growth of Chinese textile exports immediately after the global quotas were cancelled, he said. China was willing to properly solve the textile trade disputes with the U.S. and the EU through negotiations, Mr. Bo Xilai said. He said, "If developed countries had eliminated their textile quota restrictions step-by-step, the surge of Chinese textile exports to their markets this year would be avoided."

The Chinese government, attaching great importance to the relations with the U.S. and the EU, had taken a series of measures to voluntarily limit its textile export, including lowering export tax rebate rate and levying export tariffs on some textile goods, he said. — Xinhua

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