China to impose export tariff on textiles

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- China will levy an export tax on textile products in 2005, the Ministry of Commerce announced Friday, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The tax will be collected according to the volume of exports and the rate will vary according to different products between 0.2 yuan or two U.S. cents for some items, 0.3 yuan or three U.S. cents per item on some others, and 0.5 yuan per kilogram, the equivalent of five cents for 2.2 pounds on other categories of export items, said Lu Jianhua, director of the MOC foreign trade sector.

According to Lu, China will levy the tax on 31 kinds of textile products in six categories in all trading forms and to all overseas market in 2005, when all World Trade Organization members will remove quotas on textile products, Xinhua said.

Experts told the news agency that such measure would help improve the structure of Chinese textile exports and achieve the common development with other trading partners.

China is the world's major exporter of textile products with its export value reaching $77.5 billion in the first 10 months of 2004. The United States, European Union and Japan are its top three importers, Xinhua said.