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GUANGZHOU: Prospects for Chinese textile exports are looking increasingly unpredictable and unstable this year, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

Liu Haiquan, deputy director of the Ministry of Commerce's planning and finance department, made the remarks at a press conference on the nation's foreign trade situation during the ongoing 97th session of the Chinese Export Commodities Fair.

"Both the United States and European Union took protectionist measures to cut textile imports from China earlier this month," he said. "Several developing countries are also putting barriers in the way of China's textile exports."

Following the United States announcement on April 4 that it would act to stem the flow of imports of cotton trousers, cotton and knitwear shirts, as well as cotton and chemical-fibre underwear from China, the European Union adopted guidelines to oversee textile imports from China earlier this month.

Turkey has also taken protectionist measures against imports of 42 categories of textiles from China, while another 60-odd developing countries are set to follow suit.

Liu said that the fast growth of exports is reasonable in the light of the globalization of the textile trade and the rise can be attributed to the protectionist measures taken by key importing countries, including the United States and EU member countries, during the 10 years before textile trade quotas were lifted worldwide on January 1 this year.

Official statistics indicate that China's textile exports were worth US$22.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, up 19.1 per cent from the comparable period in 2004.

Textile exports to the United States were worth US$3.5 billion in the first three months of this year, up 70.5 per cent, while exports to the European Union were up 48.3 per cent for a total of US$3.9 billion.

The Chinese textile industry employs 18 million people and China firmly opposes any WTO members' efforts to prolong the quota system in any form, said Liu.

China does not encourage its enterprises to succeed in the global market simply by increasing export volume.

According to the official, China has recently taken several steps to encourage related enterprises to upgrade their products, so that the textile trade can make a stable transition to the new market demands.