China would no longer impose export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products, beginning June 1, 2005, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
"A previous decision to quintuple the export tariffs on 74 textile categories, on which export tariffs were imposed from January 1 this year, was revoked," it quoted sources from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China's cabinet as saying.
The export tariff on flax yarn will also be abolished, the Commission said. On May 20, China had made a decision to revoke export tariffs on two categories of textile products.
The strong Chinese response comes in the wake of European Union's decision to impose quotas on imports of Chinese textiles, as well as United States' decision to re-impose restrictions on seven kinds of Chinese textile and clothing imports recently.
China had opposed the EU's decision to impose quotas on imports of two categories of Chinese textiles. The EU move, based only on a three-month data collection, cannot be termed as an "accurate judge and a correct decision," commerce ministry spokesman Chong Quan said.
"The decision would not only serve as a wrong trade protectionist signal to the European textile firms, but also hurt the interests of the Chinese textile producers, which should be enjoyed by them in accordance with the global trade rules," Chong said.
China hopes that the current trade disputes between the EU and China could be solved through consultations, he said.
"China, as a member of the World Trade Organisation, has already adopted a series of measures to try to ensure the smooth development of the world textile trade following the lift of the global trade quotas on textiles on January 1", Chong said.
The European Union on Friday asked Beijing for formal consultations on two categories of textiles and clothing products -- flax yarn and T-shirts.
The EU's move would trigger an urgency procedure, which requires China to limit exports of textile or textile products in these categories to a level no greater than 7.5 per cent above the amount that entered the EU market during the period from March 2004 to February 2005.
There are seven other categories of textile imports from China currently under the EU's investigation.
