European Commission should end textiles quotas

By Alex Singleton | 16 August 2005

The Wall Street Journal today reports that some European retailers are being left stranded without clothes they have paid for thanks to EU quotas on textiles:

In June, countries with large textile industries, led by Italy, pressed for and got a quota to restrain the impact of a huge surge in imports that followed the removal of global trade barriers on textiles in January. However, the quota for trousers and sweaters already was filled by August, leaving some European retailers without clothing they had paid for. Since then, nations in northern Europe with large retailers have protested.

"There is a considerable risk that these companies could bring legal action, if the commission does not come up with a solution soon enough," wrote Swedish Trade Minister Thomas Ostros.

The commission, the EU's executive arm, has allowed goods shipped between June 11 and July 12 to enter the bloc. But it has said no new applications for more trousers and sweaters to be let in were being accepted.

The European Commission has no business interfering with the textiles trade. In a year supposed to be about making poverty history, it seems odd that the EU should protecting Italian and French special interests at the expense of the world's poor - and at the expense of European consumers, too.