EU import quotas on Chinese textiles have stranded millions of garments on ships causing a major headache for big British and European retailers waiting to stock their shelves for the winter season and crucial Christmas sales period, trade sources say.
According to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), pullovers, cardigans and waistcoats worth an estimated ?30 million pounds (US$53 million) at retail prices are being blocked from the British market alone.
The 25-nation EU and China headed off a trade war last June when EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and his Chinese counterpart Bo Xilai (薄熙來) agreed to limit the growth of 10 Chinese textile product categories to the EU to between 8.5 percent to 12.5 percent until the end of 2007.
On Wednesday the commission said that it had obtained approval from EU member states to allow some flexibility in the way the quotas were applied so that the blocked goods could be released.
The commission said that it was seeking approval from the Chinese for about 9.0 percent of next year's quota for the affected garments to be brought forward to this year to give access to the stranded goods.
A spokeswoman for the British Clothing Industry Association, a London-based manufacturers' body, told reporters that "the quota is already full" for woollen tops, resulting in millions of garments being left on ships at ports across Europe and Asia.
"Most of the [British] high street is affected" by the blocking of the goods, she added, while noting that other woollen goods, notably trousers, were also close to their quota ceilings.
Alasdair Gray, director of the Brussels BRC office, said that the problem was "not just in the UK but throughout Europe. There are lots of companies affected."
The garments were due to be supplied to major European retail groups and wholesalers, he said, adding that in Britain alone 15 retailers were affected.
The senior trade adviser at Brussels-based trade body EuroCommerce, Ralph Kamphoener, told reporters by telephone: "It's a problem that unites all the big retailers but also many of these who are importing and wholesaling the clothing products."
It also had put in jeopardy relations between EU companies and their Chinese producers, Kamphoener said.
He mentioned the names of four leading retailers as examples of companies affected by the problem. One of these, Marks and Spencer in Britain decline to comment, and another, Tesco, the number one British supermarket Tesco, said it had largely overcome the problem.
The pullovers which cannot be imported had all been paid for either through advance payment or with binding letters of credit.
"It's very difficult for those companies who are now unable to honor their commitments with their Chinese partners and that is very much a pity."
Furthermore, the consumer was left to deal with the consequences, he added.
"We will have limited consumer choice and we will have higher prices."
"If the retailers are now having to source the pullovers they were expecting from China from elsewhere, then it's clear that they will not get the same quality for the same price.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)