Brussels, 24/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the removal of textile quotas on 1 January 2005, representatives of the EU and China held a second dialogue meeting in Beijing on 23 November on trade in textiles and the clothing sector. Their talks covered issues related to market access, production and investment. It was during the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Brussels on 6 May that dialogue on trade in textiles began. During this visit, the EU announced that a monitoring systems on Chinese textiles, compatible with WTO rules, would be put into place on 1 January 2005, in order to ensure a smooth transition towards trade with no quantitative restrictions. The EU hopes to avoid a steep increase in Chinese exports together with a fall in prices once the quotas are removed, as this could have serious consequences for other countries which export to the EU, especially developing countries which depend strongly on their textile exports.