Talks are due to begin today between China and the European Union to revise a two-month-old trade pact.
The June 10th deal, which capped growth in 10 lines of Chinese textile exports at 8 to 12 per cent a year, 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.
However, with most of the new export ceilings having already been reached, it has led to to vast quantities of garments and other textile products from China being blocked by EU customs officials.
Lu Jianhua (L), Director of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce's foreign trade administration department welcomes Fritz-Harald Wenig, a trade director representing the EU before their meeting in Beijing today.REUTERS/Peter Parks/Pool.
The situation, has been described as "a major problem" by the Irish Clothing and Textile Alliance (ICTA), and it predicts it could cause scarcity in many shops including major outlets such as Arnotts, Clerys, and Marks and Spencer.
Retailers are furious that they cannot take delivery of items such as bras and blouses worth hundreds of millions of euros that they have bought for the lucrative Christmas shopping season.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson acknowledged yesterday there was a "serious glitch" in the June agreement and that a pragmatic solution was needed.
Teams of technical negotiators were due to sit down in Beijing later today to explore possible solutions.
These include transferring quotas that have not been filled, such as for cotton fabrics, to more popular lines, "borrowing" from next year's quotas or allowing EU importers to bring in goods ordered before the June 10th curbs.
ICTA director Michael Hannon has called for a "swift resolution of the problem", warning: "If companies cannot get hold of these products which they have already paid for they will be forced to offset these losses through higher prices."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said an Irish delegation had conveyed the significant difficulties being faced by Irish importers in Brussels meetings yesterday.