US, China Cotton Associations Sign Agreement

Avatar para Matt Hopkins Por Scott C. Lucas|15 de novembro de 2006

Gao Fang, secretary general of the China Cotton Association, told reporters that China’s textile manufacturing sector would continue to expand beyond the 50-million or more bales of cotton in consumes each year, but that the rate of increase is likely to slow from the current pace of close to 40% per year.

Gao said that while the goal of the agreement is to enhance the US-China trading relationship, she also said that the country’s textile industry continues to have problems with US cotton quality, and added that the current crop’s quality is "even lower" than the crops of the recent past. Chinese textile mills have reported more issues with packaging and short fiber content.

She also said that while the volume of cotton imported from the US is increasing, the US share of the growing market is getting smaller, currently occupying 40% of China’s imports. Three years ago, US cotton represented 60% of Chinese imports. The balance of the trade has gone to several other countries, led by Uzbekistan and India.

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