Chong Quan, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said on Monday that China firmly opposes a proposed EU assessment of Chinese textile imports that may result in special restrictions being placed on them.

The EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson announced on Sunday that he had decided to ask the European Commission to authorize him to launch investigations into nine categories of Chinese textile imports to the EU, according to a statement released yesterday by an EU delegation to China.

The European Commission complained that imports of these nine categories increased greatly in the first quarter of this year, by degrees ranging from 51 to 534 percent. The investigation is likely to result in restrictions against imports of Chinese textiles in a couple of months' time.

The EU issued a special guiding principle on Chinese textile products on April 6, based on data for nine categories of goods.

Chong said the EU had carried out a survey on goods before it held that Chinese textile imports had exceeded a certain growth margin, but that this was in violation of basic WTO policies and relevant specifications in Section 242 of China's report on joining the WTO.

He contended that there were not enough reasons to conduct the investigation because the EU consisted of 15 member nations in the first quarter of 2004, whereas in the first quarter of this year it had 25 member nations so the figures were incomparable.

Chong also said that only the average price of ladies' blouses had lowered while the prices for all other textile products rose to some extent, and China had presented its formal comments on the matter to the EU and hoped to carry out informal consultations with it.

Both China and Europe should shoulder their responsibility for maintaining trade stability, said Chong, voicing hope that the EU would tackle the issue prudently, so as to avoid the negative impact of a unilateral action.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily April 26, 2005)