Agence France Presse

Brussels, March 16:

European Union (EU) trade commissioner Peter Mandelson ruled out yesterday a return to the EU’s former quota system for textiles, but said he would define ‘clear danger zones’ posed to Europe by Chinese clothing imports. European textile manufacturers were pushing for measures to prevent the cheap imports from harming their industry. “I intend to publish guidelines which set out clear danger zones,” Mandelson told the European Parliament’s trade committee. “If the Chinese import level in any sector were to reach such danger zones we would investigate them further with a view to determining their impact in terms of disruption of trade flows, possible injury to European industry and the likely impact on producers in vulnerable developing countries,” he said.

But Mandelson cautioned that “there could be no question of us going back to the old quota system”, and added that “safeguards would only be used as a last resort”.

He said he had been in ‘close and active’ contact with the Chinese authorities, who have taken steps to slow export growth. “My aim is for trade to find an acceptable equilibrium beyond the initial surge following liberalisation that we are witnessing no.”