China and the US had scheduled to start the fourth round of two-day textile consultation on September 28. An official from Commerce Department in Beijing said recently that the two sides did hope to reach an agreement in the talks, but differences still existed over textile quotas, so it was too soon to predict the outcome. Meanwhile, round of Sino-EU textile trade talks has also entered the final phase.

The official said that in the third round of talks, China and the US each revealed their cards in hand, but there were huge discrepancies due to varied interests. Both sides need to come to a mutual understanding and arrive at a common ground to finally reach a equally beneficial agreement.

A spokesman of China Ministry of Commerce said after the third round talks, as differences still existed regarding Sino-US textile quotas, the two sides had agreed to continue consultations on the issue and jointly seek solutions to create a developmental environment for bilateral textile trade.

China WTO Research executive director Zhou Shi Jian said the two sides had disputes on baseline period of textile restrictions. The US insisted on a base period of ‘the past year’ from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004. China insisted that the base period should be from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005, due to the textile trade in the past year was still under quota restrictions.
 
 
Fibre2fashion, News Desk - China