The European trade commissioner said today there is no risk of a shortage of Chinese clothes in the European Union due to imports from the Asian giant piling up in EU ports.
"The idea that there are likely to be shortages and shelves going empty is rather far from the truth," Peter Mandelson told a news briefing. Scare stories of clothing shortages were not justified, he added.
Mr Mandelson said he still has to formulate the proposal he will put to member states later today to unblock the Chinese garment imports held at EU ports.
EU officials have been negotiating with Chinese counterparts to find a way of easing restrictions on clothing imports.
Millions of Chinese sweaters, trousers and other goods were blocked because most of the ceilings set under a June 10th deal that capped growth in 10 lines of textile exports at 8 to 12 per cent a year have already been reached.
The agreement was hailed at the time as a sensible response to a deluge of low-cost clothes from China following the scrapping of global textile quotas on January 1st.
But the EU's 25 member states have since split over the unanticipated pile-up of hundreds of millions of euros' worth of Chinese garments.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have warned of job losses among retailers unless the EU releases the clothes, ordered for the lucrative Christmas shopping season.
But southern countries with big textile industries - such as France, Italy and Spain - are putting pressure on Mr Mandelson not to water down the June pact.