EU Ends Textile Import Quotas

BRUSSELS - Dec 13/04 - SNS -- The European Union will suspend all quantitative restrictions on the import of textile and clothing products from WTO countries effective January 1.

This Regulation implements one of the key commitments taken at the end of the last WTO Trade Round ("Uruguay Round") in 1994.

"This definitively seals the disappearance of textiles quotas that have been in place for four decades and there is no going back", declared EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

"The challenge now for the textiles industry world-wide is to compete in the new environment. But policy makers also need to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible and managed in a way that does not wipe out the textiles industries of weak and vulnerable developing countries. They too should be able to benefit from liberalization in due course", he added.

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