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Turkey:China bends on textile quotas as Turkey go in protectionist mode for local mkts |
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2004-11-15
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China seems to be softening its position in WTO textile quota negotiations as other countries plan ways to head off a flood of cheap Chinese imports, the head of a Turkish textile exporters group said.
Quotas are set to disappear at midnight on December 31, putting clothes and textiles on par with other goods. So far, China has rejected any implied restrictions on its sales, under the pretext that it violated the principle of trade liberalisation.
“China has to listen and discuss our demands for finding a midway solution,” said Suleyman Orakcioglu, head of the Istanbul Ready-Made Garment Exporters Association, on Wednesday.
Or else, it will face a series of safeguard measures which will work against its long-term interests and bring chaos to world trade, he said in an interview. More international talks on textile quotas are set for mid-November in Geneva.
Orakcioglu said foreign trade officials in Turkey, a major producer, were working on a plan to protect the domestic industry, whose exports are worth more than $20 billion a year. The United States and the European Union, the biggest consumers of world textile and clothing imports, are also working on safeguard measures, he added.
American textiles manufacturer unions ATMI and AMTAC have been lobbying hard with the WTO to extend the deadline for implementation of the quota phase-out until 2008. They are arguing that China has taken almost 60% of the US textiles market in less than two years and is continuing to increase its share at their cost, US manufacturers argue.
The US Congress had earlier accused China of unfair trade practices, currency manipulation and direct state subsidies in a letter, dated June 7, to President George W Bush and urged action to save half a million jobs at home and tens of millions abroad.
Orakcioglu fears huge job disruption and business bankruptcies in dozens of poor countries, which will exacerbate political instability and win new recruits to global terrorism. He is a founding member of the 52-nation Global Alliance for Fair Textile Trade.
But Orakcioglu said he remained optimistic that China would understand that a gradual quota phase-out was the best solution for everyone rather than face a resurgent protectionism. “Prices are plunging near 70% together with profits. But costs are not falling that much. This will hurt everyone and a picture nobody wants to see will emerge,” he said.
Meanwhile, China’s ambassador to Turkey has asked to meet him in a move Orakcioglu said shows Beijing’s newly conciliatory position. Textiles and clothes will still be subject to import tariffs, and China also agreed at the time of its entry in 2001 that members could demand it restrict its sales growth in their domestic markets to 8% a year for the next few years. |
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