The Hindu Business Line : ITCB flays EU textile quota restrictions for new members

THE International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (ITCB) on Thursday voiced its concern over the European Union move for new quota restrictions in the market with ten more members joining the EU from May 1, in violation of its obligation under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC).

In a communication adopted at the end of the three-day conclave here, the ITCB Council said that with eight months to go for the multi-fibre arrangement to end by December, the EU had determined the levels of the quota unilaterally for its new members.

In a similar case in 1999, a dispute panel and the appellate body of the World Trade Organisation had rejected the legality of extension of such quota.

It noted that Canada, the US and the EU had since notified the WTO confirming that on January 1, 2005, they would eliminate all lingering quota restrictions. The Textiles Monitoring Body (TMB) had in turn recalled that all administrative procedures and measures maintained for the implementation of these restrictions should likewise stand terminated.

The Council also voiced dismay over the fact that the restraining countries were continuing to deny the use of carry forward quotas for 2004, thus effectively reducing access in the last year of ATC. It called on those countries to review their position so as to avoid disruption of long-standing trade flows.

It also resolved to exercise necessary vigilance during the remainder of the ATC period to ensure that all requirements under the Agreement were fully complied with by resolving to pursue the remaining matters for full and faithful implementation of ATC through all available channels.

It hoped that the restraining countries would eschew protectionist pressure, fulfil their contractual obligations and thereby help strengthen confidence in the multilateral trading system.

It also sought that they might resist any precipitate recourse to alternative methods of protection and discrimination against developing and least developed economies — given that they had chosen not to execute the process of dismantling quota restrictions in a gradual and progressive manner as was required by ATC. In this regard, the Council resolved to take all appropriate steps to ensure that the gains made by painstaking efforts were duly preserved.