AsiaInt Economic Intelligence Review, April 2005

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http://www.asiaint.com/arl/arl5907.asp - 1,088 words

The removal of Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) quotas on 1 January this year has had an almost immediate effect in Asia, producing new tensions in global trade relationships. It is no surprise that China is the source of this: with its unbeatable labour costs and economies of scale its textile and apparel exports were expected to surge once the quotas were abolished. With trade data apparently confirming this prediction, the US and the EU are getting ready to re-impose "safeguard" quotas under the terms of China's entry to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Added to international pressure over the low value of the renminbi, the stage is set for increasingly acrimonious relations between China and its trade partners for the foreseeable future_