After 10 hours of substantive talks, China and Europe finally reached an agreement on disputes over textile trade before the dawn of June 11. That is a great benefit to Sino-European relations.

After global textiles integration this year, EU's textile trade friction with China has gradually escalated, adding haze to the relations between China and Europe.

EU's setting restrictions on a variety of Chinese textiles came in the way as expected but beyond the set rules. As a matter of fact, the issue was artificially exaggerated. Textile trade accounts for only a small proportion of seven percent of China-Europe trade. China's export of textile products to Europe has, of course, solved the problem of employment to some extent, but don't forget that China acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the price of opening agricultural product, service trade and other markets, the opening of these markets has provided the EU with a huge amount of "bread baskets". This is a kind of exchange and a kind of balance.

At present, China has opened more than 100 service trade departments, with the opening degree reaching 62 percent. This implies that various EU member countries can gain more employment opportunities from China, while generally the opening level of the service industry by other developing countries ranges only between 20-40 percent, the opening ratio of developed countries is merely 80 percent. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is quite clear about this when he said: China has made contribution to world economic growth, which is very beneficial to the Europeans. Although textile integration would bring us pressure which, however, is a kind of positive pressure.

There is no need for reticence, free trade and protectionism have always been closely associated with each other, often compare with each other and interact as both cause and effect. This phenomenon especially provides much food for thought in Sino-European economic and trade ties. In the past two centuries, the free trade theory has made the European economy advance by leaps and bounds, cutting a conspicuous figure worldwide, but at the moment when the EU was to close its door to Chinese textile products, this organization abandoned the beautiful banner of free trade. The ratio of China's per-capita GDP and the EU is 1:25, Chinese textile enterprises are engaged in the production of goods for designated brands or trademarks, the average profit China earns from a single shirt exported to Europe is only US$30-40 cents, the greatest part of profit is taken away by the European side.

Mandelson's predecessor Pascal Lamy once said: The EU has numerous dominant products in world trade, in the textile industry, it entirely can and should reduce contention with developing countries. Swedish Secretary of Trade also warned: The kind of growing and worrisome trade protectionist trend may weaken the competitiveness of the EU.

Fortunately, the EU finally released its sincerity toward the question regarding textile products. This time China and Europe greeted each other with hearty handshakes, which can be rated as a practical and wise decision, not only avoiding a further escalation in trade disputes between the two sides, but also proving that Sino-European strategic cooperative partnership is not an empty word.

There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and the EU, furthermore, there are increasing common points of interests between the two sides. Last year, the EU outdid Japan and the United States for the first time to become China's No.1 trade partner, the prospect of bilateral economic and trade ties between China and the EU looks promising. As the scale of trade has expanded, increase of disputes would follow, this is only a very normal matter, the two sides should strive to solve the matter through dialogs and consultations and jointly create a positive, stable and foreseeable trade environment, rather than attempt to set up obstacles by adopting unilateral actions.

The proper solution of Sino-European disputes over textile products will propel bilateral ties to become more mature, which will also serve as a positive role of reference for China to cope with similar frictions in the future. In comparison, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez went home without result a week ago, while Mandelson returned home with satisfaction this time.

By People's Daily Online