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China and U.S. reach textile agreement

The United States and China reached a three-year agreement on Tuesday to rein in China?s booming clothing and textile shipments to the United States, solving an issue that had threatened to cool ties. Both sides hailed the accord as a success but China warned that free trade in textiles was inevitable.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai announced a deal that covers over 30 clothing categories including socks, T-shirts and bras at a joint news conference in London. The deal follows a similar accord between China and theEuropean Union signed in September, as industrialised countries grapple with China?s emergence as an economic superpower.

Thanks to its cheap and deep pool of labour, China?s clothing exports surged following the abolition of global textile quotas on January 1 of this year, with China?s exports of clothing and textile products to the United States jumping more than 50 percent in the first eight months of 2005 to nearly $17.7 billion. Washington later slapped emergency curbs on an array of goods to protect manufacturing jobs in the U.S.