No US-China textile deal; more talks in Oct
From Max Lee

Beijing—The United States and China failed to reach a comprehensive textile agreement in a third round of talks this week but will resume negotiations in October, U.S. trade officials said on Thursday.
“We were able to make progress, particularly with product coverage and quota levels, but we did not reach an agreement with the Chinese, “lead U.S. textile negotiator David Spooner said in a statement announcing that the talks ended Wednesday night.
“We will be meeting with the Chinese again next month and will be consulting with them soon on the location and exact date of the next round of negotiations,” Spooner said.
According to insiders, the differences mainly focus on the duration of the pact, the base figure for determining exports and the growth rate.
The United States wants to calculate annual growth based on the 2004 figure but China would not accept the proposal because textile trade that year was skewed under a regime of international quotas, said Zhou Shjian, an expert on WTO issues.
China’s textile exports to the United States totaled US$17.8 billion in 2004, while the figure was US$13.1 billion for the first six months of this year. The US also wants to restrain annual growth below 7.5 per cent while China wants significantly more, about 15 per cent, Zhou added.
The United States wants a deal that runs through 2008 while China prefers an agreement that lasts through 2007, like the one reached with the European Union.
“But they are narrowing their differences,” Zhou said. Cass Johnson, president of the US National Council of Textile Organisations, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “I think they’ve made more progress on product coverage...”
And analysts are upbeat about the next round of talks. “It will be critical, a make-or-break round,” said Zhao Yumin, a foreign trade expert at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation, a think-tank of the Ministry of Commerce.
“I hope they reach a compromise, as it will bring benefits to both sides,” she said. Since the decades-old international system of quotas on textile and apparel trade ended on January 1, Chinese-made products have flooded into the United States, a situation which put increased pressure on the United States’ already struggling domestic textile industry. While US industry lobbyists asked for more curbs, US retailers would like to see an increase in imports.
In another development, the EU commissioner in charge of taxation and customs issues said yesterday that the European Union’s new agreement to cap Chinese textile imports was the best deal possible.
Europe renegotiated import limits with China this month. The new terms set in September adjust restrictions on Chinese clothing, and restrict China’s planned export growth from 10 per cent to 5-7.5 per cent. “It was the maximum we could have extracted from China in terms of an agreed limitation of their exports,” Laszlo Kovacs told the European Parliament. Kovacs said China was entitled to enjoy the benefits of the global economy in a way that avoided trade disruptions.

China to enhance int’l co-op in anti-corruption drive
From Max Lee

BEIJING— China attaches great importance to the expansion of international exchanges and cooperation in combating corruption, a top anti-corruption official said here Friday.
Wu Guanzheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said China pays close attention to emulating good experience from other countries in their anti-corruption drive.
Wu made the remarks during a meeting with representatives to the Fifth Regional Anti-Corruption Conference for Asia-Pacific held in Beijing from Sept. 28 to 30.
The representatives are from the 25 member nations of the ADB/OECD Initiative for Asia-Pacific, and from some regional and international organizations.
Wu, also secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC Central Committee, said the ADB/OECD Initiative for Asia-Pacific has played an active role in curbing corruption, promoting equality and development, advancing regional anti-corruption exchanges and cooperation and maintaining economic growth and social stability in the region.
Wu congratulated on the success of the Fifth Regional Anti-Corruption Conference, saying China is to share the outcome of this meeting with other members and to apply it in the course of its advancing anti-corruption effort in the Asia-Pacific region.
Since China embarked on reform and opening itself to the outside world over two decades ago, recalled Wu, the country has made tremendous achievements in all spheres, including political stability, economic growth, social progress and improvement of living standards of its people.
As China is now amid a transitional period of systematic, structural and social transformations, the issue of corruption has inevitably cropped up and become serious in certain areas, Wu acknowledged.
Wu went on to say that the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government always remain sober-minded about this issue and have resorted to tough measures in coping with corruption. As a result, the phenomenon of corruption has been contained to some extent, the whole situation has turned for the better, and social fairness and justice is enhanced.
Meanwhile, new circumstances and fresh problems will emerge in the process of further improving the system of socialist market economy, which calls for high attention, he said, adding the tasks of combating corruption and promoting integrity of administration remain arduous.
Under the guidelines of addressing both the phenomenon and root causes, adopting comprehensive rectification, attaching equal importance to punishment and prevention and focusing on prevention, he noted, China has developed the principles for anti-corruption system, and it pays equal attention to education, institution and supervision in a bid to step up efforts to control corruption.
Through efforts of education in philosophy, relevant laws, disciplines and code of conduct among government functionaries, China is fostering a culture of clean government, he acknowledged.
Moreover, he noted, through the reform of administrative, fiscal, personnel and legal systems, China is striving to make structural innovation and perfect the system.
By making relevant administrative affairs open to the general public, he went on, the Chinese government has been increasing transparency to facilitate inquiry, participation and supervision of the public.
China is beefing up the supervision and restriction on the use of power by applying the norms of good practice in all links of administration, ranging from decision making to execution.
Wu also said China will go on maintaining the strong momentum in containment of corruption, and the country will give priority to probing the cases of power abuse by officials and government organs for personal gains or infringement upon public interests.
Furthermore, China will implement the basic strategy of rule oflaw and insist that “all are equal before the law”. He underscored that no matter who he is, he will be punished in case of violating disciplines or laws.