EU Countries Want Textile Limits Relaxed

Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have asked the European Commission to relax trade limits on Chinese textiles a month after the EU stopped issuing import licenses for the cheap clothing. European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mochan told the Associated Press that trade officials had received requests for import flexibility from the four countries and added that EU negotiators with China have only been authorized to discuss shifting part of next year's sweater quota to 2005. EU trade officials continue to discuss with Beijing how to handle the influx of textile imports. The EU and the United States had both expressed concern over a huge jump in Chinese T-shirt and flax yarn exports following the end of the global textile quota system on Jan. 1. Then in June, China said it would limit growth in exports of 10 textile and clothing products to the European Union to 8 to 12.5 percent a year in a bid to defuse a trade row straining ties between them.