Towards the end of February there occurred a renewed inerest in the arrangements that will follow the textile quota regime after its expiry under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Textiles & Clothing. China has accepted a four-year extension of its quota arrangements with the US and the EU; other textile exporting countries and regions are eager to reach separate regional arrangements to tide them over the difficulties of the 22 months to the demise of the MFA and full implementation of the ATC. This transformation from the existing to new arrangements was supposed to be conducted in three stages in the US, the EU and other importing countries over the 10 years 1995-2004, before the entire quota regime was eliminated, but progress in this admittedly agonising program has been generally tardy. The 10-year agreement is a multinational commitment inscribed in brass in the joint declaration of the Marrakesh agreement establishing the World Trade Organization. In particular the parties to this agreement resolved "to develop an integrated, more viable and durable multilateral trading system encompassing the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade, the results of past liberalisation efforts and all the results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations."
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