China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced on September 16 detailed regulations on the bidding system for a part of textile export quotas for 2006.

A special committee under the MOFCOM has been set up to take charge of bid invitations.

According to the regulations, any registered and qualified enterprise with an export license and an export record in the bid category is eligible to join the bid process.

Bid participants may decide on a price independently, but the special committee can publicize a minimum bid price if need be.

The committee will set differentiated quantitative bid limits for enterprises according to the scale of their exports. Exports left over will be distributed through another bid process or handled by some other means, the regulations read.

The partial bid process is aimed at preventing a repeat of last month's stockpile fiasco.

In January this year, export quotas for textiles to the European Union were removed. However, China and the EU soon found themselves in an oversupply wrangle. The matter was resolved after the two sides reached a consensus after a ten-hour-long closed-door discussion in Shanghai in May. China resumed export licensing for textiles to the EU on June 19, aiming to change the growth mode of the industry and stabilize export orders.

However, barely a month after the agreement was signed, orders of Chinese sweaters exceeded the restated quotas; a week later, it was men 's trousers, followed by blouses, bras, T-shirts and flax yarn.

Up to 80 million garments were started piling up in European warehouses and customs checkpoints, authorities refusing to allow the goods into the market.

Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson signed another agreement in Beijing on September 5 to release the Chinese garments.

And if China and the United States reach a consensus on trade management cooperation, China will resume temporary export licenses for textile goods to the US as well, Lu Jianhua, director of MOFCOM's Foreign Trade Department said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2005)