Since January 1, 2009, China's textile and garment exports have officially entered the era of quotas.

It has been a few days since entering "quota free", but most textile enterprises in our county did not feel the warmth of the "good news". In the interview with reporters, many textile and garment enterprises were very plain.

"The biggest problem we are facing now is not quotas, but the shortage of orders in European and American markets. At the same time, because of the economic downturn in Europe and America, many large orders are afraid to pick up because of risks."

Xia LV, a large garment enterprise official told reporters.

The director of the county foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau told reporters that since last year, the problem of inadequate quota has not been perplexed by our county textile and garment enterprises. Even though the quota is relatively tight, the quota has not become a heavy burden on them.

"After the abolition of quotas, orders are not available, which is of limited importance to enterprises."

US Customs statistics show that as of December 10th last year, the average customs clearance rate of the 21 categories of textiles to China was only 63.79%, and export shrinkage was quite serious.

According to statistics, in the first half of last year, the quota utilization rate of the 21 categories of textiles and clothing exported to China was limited by less than 20%.

Reporters learned in the interview that many small and medium-sized textile enterprises have given up quotas since the second half of last year, turning the commodities that were originally ready for export to domestic sales in order to cash in the winter.

However, some business owners have taken a positive attitude towards the abolition of quotas. The head of a garment enterprise in Keqiao Development Zone said that some orders that had been lost to neighboring countries would return to the Chinese textile enterprises as the textile quota was abolished. "In the long run, the quota free era will be advantageous to the textile enterprises, after all, it is only a temporary crisis."

The abolition of the quota for textile products in the US did not cause the positive response of our textile enterprises, but this does not mean that the US government's monitoring of China's textile imports has been reduced.

Not long ago, the new US President Obama declared that the US government will closely monitor textiles from China after the textile quota expires in China.

Xu Aihua, President of the clothing association of the county, is quite worried. She thinks that the abolition of the quota for textile exports to the United States in 2009 is difficult for the textile enterprises in our county. On the contrary, the US trade protectionists have already brewed a number of restrictive measures, adding many variables to the textile and garment industry in the cold winter.