Customs statistics show that in the first half of this year, China's export value of garments and associated products was 16.28billion US dollars, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the total export value of textile goods.

Although the export value is four percent higher than the same period last year, the unit price fell almost eight percent. The decline may lead to diving profits for domestic textile products, as well as foreign traders.

A Chinese textile expert said that the rapid development of modern science and technology is one of the factors forcing prices down, in addition to worldwide currency depreciation caused by slower economic development in the United States, Japan and European countries, which has also led to slacker market demand and a declining consumption level.

An imbalance between supply and demand is regarded as another contributor.

The country's WTO membership creates some obstacles for the domestic textile market, such as a drop in prices. More and more multinationals purchase directly from China to reduce their costs, which can easily force down the price, the newspaper report said.

Facing such a scenario, experts said the government, foreign trade companies and enterprises should take measures to prevent the situation from becoming even worse, experts said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2002)