But officials do not expect the rapid increase to continue in the latter half of the year due to quota limitations.

The newspaper quoted Gu Qiang with the State Textile Industry Administration as saying that China would have difficulties getting enough quotas from the United States for its competitive textile products in the second half of the year.

"How much China will be able to sell to the United States will ultimately be determined by the purchasing power of US consumers,"said Gu. This also explains why even after China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the country's textile exports to the United States are not expected to increase drastically, he said.

According to WTO rules, the United States will have to call off its quota limitation on textile imports from China in 2005. Gu said a booming US economy has contributed to the rapid increase in China's textile exports this year.

From January to June, the applied rate of textile quotas given by the US government increased three percentage points on a year-on-year basis to 38.3 percent. "This will enable China to compete fairly with other countries that supply the textiles to the United States," Gu explained.

Chen Shujin, another official with the same administration, noted that products made of imported materials make up about one-half of China's textile exports. And from such textile exports, China only earns processing fees.

He added that the increase of textile exports lags behind China's exports to the United States as a whole.

(People's Daily)