China on Wednesday castigated the United States and the European Union for imposing 'unfair' restrictive measures against Chinese textile products and said their moves 'violated' World Trade Organisation norms.
Speaking at the 2005 Fortune Global Forum in Beijing, Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said it was 'unfair' that the US and the EU had blamed China for the fast growth of Chinese textile exports to their markets and had either imposed or intended to impose restrictions on its products.
Bo said some developed countries had 'failed' to abide by WTO norms, which partly contributed to the short-term rapid growth of China's textile exports.
When the Uruguay round WTO talks were held in 1995, the participants reached an agreement, asking developed countries to gradually ease their quota system for textile and garment products import in 10 years.
"But some countries didn't do that. They had kept 70 to 90 per cent of the most important quotas in place till the end of last year. Their activity caused the short-term rapid growth of China's textile exports in the first several months this year," he said.
"But now the United States and the EU blamed China for such a rapid growth, and tried to set restrictions on China's textile products, it's unfair," he added.
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