ISTANBUL - Turkish textile and clothing producers asked the European Commission Thursday to quickly set limits on Chinese textile imports.
"The first wave of Chinese exports to the European market has reached unexpected proportions that show the European Commission... must urgently apply safeguard clauses before all (sector) activity and employment in the Europe-Mediterranean zone is wiped out," Anatolia press agency quoted the producers' faxed request as saying.
Turkey is the second biggest textile supplier to the European Union, after China, and the sector represents 32 percent of all Turkish exports, or a total value of about 15 billion dollars in 2003.
Turkey and the EU signed a customs union that covered textiles in 1996.
The faxed request, which was signed by several Turkish textile groups, asked the EU to ensure that China "respects rules of fair trade", saying that "least developed and developing countries have already seen their market share drop."
It came as the 25-country bloc mulled how to respond to a surge in cheap Chinese imports since the January 1 end of an international textiles quota system, and amid protests from Europe's textile industry that they also need protection.
The commission, the EU's executive arm, expects to decide on Monday whether to launch an investigation into surging Chinese textile imports, the first step towards applying so-called safeguards allowed under World Trade Organization rules.
On Tuesday however, China bluntly warned the EU that slapping limits on Chinese textile imports could harm relations between Brussels and Beijing.
"We invite our European partner to be very careful in the use of the safeguard clauses," a representative of the Chinese embassy to the EU said.
04/21/2005 15:26 GMT