| EU retailers angered by China textile quota(FT.com)
 Updated: 2005-08-15 07:07
 Mr Mandelson has given the 25 EU governments until today to supply 
comprehensive trade figures to assess the cost value and volumes of stranded 
goods and thus to gauge the potential damage to retailers. The retailers are 
also warning that a Brussels proposal to allow an additional 6m sweaters into 
the EU did “not scratch the surface” of what was needed to bridge the gap 
between orders and deliveries. 
  A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Sunday: 
“We are obviously aware of the issues ... We cannot comment now on the scale of the problem when 
we don't know exactly what the scale of the problem is. That is why we have 
asked for more information from the member states. Until we have that, it would 
also be premature to say what we can do to address this problem as well as 
possible.” 
 Mr Mandelson had hoped to hold emergency talks with Bo Xilai, his Chinese 
counterpart, by the end of last week. However, a spokeswoman in Brussels said 
the high-level discussions were put on hold, pending further progress among 
negotiators at a technical level. 
 China's interest in addressing the concerns of European retailers could be 
overshadowed from tomorrow by the launch of a separate bilateral round of 
textile negotiations with the US.
 
 
 
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