NZ to back China in US trade row

BEIJING - Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton will support China in its textile row with the United States if the issue is raised during bilateral talks in Beijing today.

Sutton, who is in Beijing to increase momentum in New Zealand's push for a Chinese free-trade agreement, was informally sounded out by a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce on his arrival on Saturday.

While the textile row is not part of the formal agenda for today's discussions with Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, it is expected to come up as part of a discussion on the World Trade Organisation.

"My feeling is that we support them," said Sutton in Beijing yesterday.

He hit out against the arbitrary and unfair imposition of US trade barriers, which sparked the high-level row.

US and Chinese trade officials held an emergency meeting in Beijing over the weekend to try to avert an all-out trade war.

Under pressure from its domestic textile industry, the Bush Administration slapped emergency import curbs on trousers, shirts, underwear and cotton yarn after a surge in Chinese textiles exports since a global quota regime ended on January 1.

Sutton said the US and EU were always going to face more fierce competition from developing countries once the multi-fibre agreement expired.

"But they're all petrified of China not because they're paying workers less but because China is an absolute machine for producing textiles to specification, on time. It's the sheer competence of their industry."