The EU Council adopted on December 13 a Commission proposal for a Regulation that will eliminate from January 1, 2005 all quantitative restrictions on the import of textile and clothing products from WTO countries. This Regulation implements one of the key commitments adopted at the end of the last WTO Trade Round, the Uruguay Round, in 1994. "This definitively seals the disappearance of textile 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 textile industry worldwide 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 textile industries of weak and vulnerable developing countries. They too should be able to benefit from liberalisation in due course". The Council Regulation also establishes a transitional regime concerning the import in the first quarter of 2005 of products subject to the import quota regime in 2004. It furthermore sets up a statistical monitoring system for the imports to the EU of a number of textile and clothing products. This will give early intelligence of signs of serious market disruption and will allow the EU to follow closely the development of trade in the new environment.
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