As learned form the Ministry of Commerce of China, in line with the relevant articles in the WTO's Agreement On Textiles and Clothing and China��s WTO Accession Protocol, importing countries which impose limits on Chinese textiles will remove the quotas as of January 1, 2005. Correspondingly, China will annul the quota licenses on textile products involved.

The Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of the Customs have jointly released the list of textiles which will be freed from systems of importing countries. The release announced that textile export license are not needed either in the customs declaration procedure in China or in the check-up process in the customs of the country of destination. But the license is still necessary before January 1 next year.

An official from the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce said the global textile trade had long been immune from the world free trade system. The efforts of the less developed members of WTO have finally paid off by the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing after prolonged difficult negotiations on multilateral trade talks in Uruguay rounds.

WTO members agree in this protocol on the gradual integration of the textile sector into the global free trade system after a 10-year transitional period. However, major importers such as Europe and US have made very slow progress on pushing the integration forward in the 10 years. They keep 70 percent of their quotas, most of which are sensitive products in tight supply, intact until the last minute.

By people's Daily Online