A spokesman with the China National Textile Industry Council denied the allegation that China's increased textile export has disrupted the market order of other countries, the overseas edition of the Beijing-based People's Daily reported Monday.

Spokesman Sun Huaibin accused the United States and European Union (EU) of violating the rules of the World Trade Organization by imposing restriction to curb China's textile exports.

He cited cotton underclothes as an example. In the January-March period of this year, China's overall export of cotton underclothes grew only 17 percent, he said.

Meanwhile, according to the statistics of the US customs, although China's exports of cotton underclothes to the US grew 308 percent in the period, the volume accounted for only half of those imported to the United States from Honduras during the same period.

It is hard to say that China grabbed others' textile market shares, he noted.

According to Sun, in the first three months of 2005, China's textile export volume amounted to 22.91 billion US dollars, an increase of 18.99 percent over the same period last year. The growth rate was down 5.95 percent over the first quarter of the previous year.

China's textile exports to the United States and the EU grew 56.07 percent during the period, 31.16 percent higher than the corresponding period of 2004.

He ascribed the increased export to the U.S. and the EU to the abolishment of the worldwide quota system on certain textile products on Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, Sun acknowledged that China's textile industry reported a stable growth in the first three months of this year, mainly due to strong domestic demand.

The EU executive commission last Thursday decided to open an inquiry into Chinese exports to Europe of nine categories of clothing, a move that could lead to the imposition of formal limits on such shipments.

The EU fears its textile industry is being harmed by cheaper products from China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2005)