China has urged the US government not to limit imports of Chinese cotton trousers, warning such moves would violate WTO principles of free textile trade and hurt trade relations. The Ministry of Commerce said during the weekend it "opposed" the US decision last week to accept a petition by the US textile industry and consider imposing quotas on imports of Chinese-made pants.
The application was the second move targeting Chinese textile products within a week. China fears the US will repeat similar action it took recently against Chinese socks.
"The Chinese government ... reserves the rights to take further actions under the framework of the World Trade Organisation," the ministry's spokesman Chong Quan said in a statement late Saturday.
"This will severely frustrate the Chinese confidence in the international trade environment after its WTO accession and also harm the interests of US cotton growers, consumers, importers, fabric machinery makers and US investors in China," Chong said.
The Chinese government urges the US government to handle such cases "cautiously" and "amend its errors" to avoid damaging Sino-US trade relations, Chong said.
The US government decided in October Chinese imports of socks were disrupting the US market and that the one-year-maximum cap of 7.5 percent in import growth would start as soon as the United States sought talks with China on the dispute.
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