Brussels, 25/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The representative of European importers in Brussels, the Foreign Trade Association, regards as inadequate the proposal that the European Commission presented in July to abolish restrictions on the import of textiles in the framework of the World Trade Organisation (see EUROPE of 13 July, p.14). In a letter addressed this week to the European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, FTA President, Jacqueline Peltier, calls for more finished clothes to be included on the list of products liberalised in January 2002, during the third stage of dismantling provided for by the Uruguay Round.
The European Commission presented the Council with a proposal providing for the abolition of restrictions on 62 categories of textile and clothing products, or an additional liberalisation of textile imports of 18%, in accordance with the undertakings made at the WTO. But, according to FTA, this percentage conceals "the fact that among the categories to be liberalised there are only a few clothing products, as was the case in the first two integration phases".
For FTA, faster liberalisation of the clothing sector "would much rather have met the spirit of the textiles agreement". In addition, "the textiles industry would have had a much bigger span of time to adjust to the complete integration of the clothing products", avoiding the sudden liberalisation in 2005" (these products will anyway have to be liberalised in 2005, in the fourth stage of the dismantling provided for at the WTO).
"Aware" that the Commissioner for Trade tried to present a proposal that lays down the basis for an agreement ion Council, the FTA President ""cordially asks" Pascal Lamy to insist in the debates in Council on new categories being added to the list of products to be liberalised and that, "under no circumstances", should discussions reduce the Commission's proposal.
Launching its proposal, that has to be presented to the WTO by the end of the year, Commissioner Lamy had regarded that the Community textile and clothing market was "the most open in the world". Stressing that many markets remain closed to European products, he had explained that the Commission was counting on a Council mandate to negotiate bilateral agreements with third countries based on a reciprocal opening of textile markets.