China's Chamber of Commerce has warned textile exporters of possible US safeguard measures against cotton and man-made fibre curtains.

"We hope the companies, particularly those of small-and-medium size, will keep a close eye on events as safeguards could greatly impact on companies specializing in these categories," said Liang Shiyu, director of the chamber's garment branch.

She suggested exporters be cautious of long-term orders from the United States before the issue has been resolved.

"We have been in high tension since the United States announced its first safeguard measures against Chinese textiles," said Xu Zhiguo, manager of Shanghai Worldbest Hometex (Group) Co.

The company markets man-made fibre curtains and the US is a major market.

Although curtains only account for a small proportion of the company's exports, Xu is worried that safeguard measures might also be imposed on other classes of product.

The US textile industry requested on May 31 for the US Government's Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) to apply safeguard measures on curtain imports from China.

They claimed that imports of certain textile products had increased some 500 per cent since quotas were removed in 2002.

(China Daily June 13, 2005)