China's clothing and textile exports, focus of rows with the European Union and the United States, soared 20% in value in the first half of this year against the same period in 2004, a study said yesterday.

But authors of the report, from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said warnings from industry and labour groups last year that cheap Chinese goods would crush producers in other countries had so far proven unfounded.

Figures cited by the study showed that China's overall share of the global market had grown three percentage points to nearly 16 percent from January -- when old textile trade rules based on quotas were replaced by a tariff-based system -- to June.

At the same time, a number of EU and Asian countries had also boosted exports and their global share, some significantly.

Senior ILO official Sally Paxton told a news conference that so far this year the picture emerging had been mixed.

"Some of the dire consequences predicted have not occurred, at least until now," she said.

ILO textile industry specialist Jean-Paul Sajhau said forecasts of a textile industry collapse with huge job losses around the globe under an onslaught of Chinese goods had so far proven "exaggerated."

The study was issued for a three-day ILO conference at which employers, governments and labour unions -- joined by major global retail clothing chains -- are seeking ways to ease the social impact of the rule changes, in force since January 1.

The shift, which the ILO experts agreed has hit small African producers hard and cut jobs in the United States and Europe, came with the end of a long-standing global textile agreement supervised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

WTO member countries had 10 years to prepare for the changes, agreed as part of a new world trade treaty in 1994. But some industry analysts said many only began to understand the possible implications as the deadline loomed.

In the face of strong surges of clothing from China since the start of the year, both the EU and the United States imposed limits on the volume that could be brought in.

The 25-nation EU later reached an agreement with Beijing under which China would itself take measures to cut the flow. But US officials have yet to make a deal with China.

The ILO study showed that while the dollar value of all US exports of textiles and clothing in the first six months of 2005 had dropped by 5.4%, the United States' overall global market share was down 0.6 percentage points, to 9%.

In Europe, Italy had boosted the dollar value of its largely upmarket products by 9%, and held a global market share of 8.5%, while Germany, with nearly 8% of the market, saw the value of its sales rise by nearly 3%.

Japan, with 4% of the world market, had seen the value of its exports go up by 2.8%, and Turkey had boosted sales by 11.5% in US dollar terms, increasing its overall global market share to 2.8%.

The ILO's Sajhau said small developing economies like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Morocco that had built textile industries under the old system had not suffered so far from the changes as much as they had feared.

This was partly due to the fact that big retail firms in richer powers had responded to pressure from consumer groups to place contracts in countries where labour conditions were improving and could be effectively monitored.

Engineeringnews.co.za