China and the United States signed a memorandum on trade in textile and apparel on Tuesday in London after seven rounds of tough talks.

"This is a win-win result, which once again proves that any trade problem can be solved with reason and intelligence from both sides on an equal and fair basis," said Bo Xilai, China's minister of commerce, who signed the deal with US trade representative Rob Portman.

"However, the agreement is not as good as expected as quota control in trade is totally outdated in a world of economic liberalization and free trade," Bo added.

The deal, inked after five months of talks, covers 21 of China's textile products exported to the US, 16 of which were not safeguarded before.

The safeguards were a provision of China's 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, which allows WTO members to restrict the growth in imports from China to 7.5 percent annually when there is a market-disrupting surge.

The current safeguards do not cover all categories of the imported clothing and textiles and have to be renegotiated each year.

The new deal would allow China's exports of most clothing and textile categories to the US to grow at 10 to 15 percent in 2006, 12.5 to 16 percent in 2007 and 15 to 17 percent in 2008.

It lasts through 2008, one year longer than a similar deal that China reached with the 25-nation European Union earlier this year.

China's signing of the textile agreement with the United States, proves once again that China is a trust-worthy country whose words really count, said the Chinese minister.

It took China, a developing country with huge population, almost two decades to develop its textile industry, a lower-middle-end industry on which nearly 20 million workers live and support their families, Bo said, urging the world to present a better understanding of and offer more support to China.

For his part, Portman said that the agreement is equal and fair and provides both countries with a stable and predictable future in textile trade.

Source: Xinhua