GENEVA — European Union member nations, under pressure from retailers, appeared likely to petition the organization to amend with more flexible terms its decision to cut off imports of Chinese sweaters, which had reached the agreed quota level for 2005, industry executives said.
Countries from the 25-nation group are to ask “for an additional 5 percent to be taken from the quota level agreed for 2006 and to also be allowed to transfer an additional 4 percent from categories not used so much,” said Stefan Wengler, managing director with the Foreign Trade Association of German Retailers.
Wengler said in a telephone interview from Cologne that the cutoff has created “a real dramatic situation at the moment.”
“There’s at least 6 to 7 million units pending in the price range of 10 to 15 euros,” he said.
The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, announced Friday that the limit for sweaters as agreed to under the EU-China textile agreement of June 10 had been reached. The agreement restricted the annual growth of Chinese textiles and apparel exports to the EU in 10 sensitive categories to between 8 and 12.5 percent until the end of 2007.
Under the accord, China’s sweater quota for 2005 was set at 181.5 million units. For 2006, China has been granted a sweater quota of 199.7 million units, or a growth of 10 percent.
A spokeswoman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the commission was “still exploring for ways to provide flexibilities” for goods shipped until July 12, the date the EU-China Textile agreement was adopted.
William Lakin, director general of the European Apparel & Textiles Association, an umbrella group that represents 170,000 companies and more than 2.5 million workers, said Euratex “very much hopes that there will be no additional increases” in sweater imports for this year.
However, an Asian textile industry executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said European retailers who didn’t know the quota agreement was coming “and had it slammed on them deserve to be given some flexibility.”