Eu Move To Free Textiles Irks Industry

The plan to dismantle long-standing textile trade restrictions under the Multi-Fibre Arrangements is designed to head off a confrontation at the Singapore meeting of the World Trade Organisation in December.

By giving away sensitive categories without obtaining concessions from major exporting countries, the Commission is missing an opportunity to pry open markets that remain closed to European exports, said Guy Arnould, head of Euratex, the industrys main lobby group.

The European Commission had hoped to persuade the poorer countries to remove their own trade barriers in return for faster European liberalisation but the developing nations rejected this. Brussels now aims to act unilaterally. It plans to include several sensitive categories in the second stage of the MFA phase-out, due in January 1998, including some mass-market textiles such as woollen yarns and fabrics. It also plans to include products equivalent to 17.8 per cent of its 1990 textile imports, compared with the Uruguay Round target of 17 per cent. The industry concedes that the economic impact is likely to be limited, but says: In matters of trade, especially when employment is at stake, free gifts are signs of weakness and no inducement to reciprocity.

 

There is also industry opposition to the inclusion of gloves, woollen yarns and fabrics and synthetic ropes in the phase-out.

Renato Ruggiero, WTO director-general, has attacked rich nations for not living up to the spirit of the Uruguay Round in their approach to the MFA phase-out.