Related: Premier Wen: Sino-US trade issues can be settled

    BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- The United States still hoped it could reach an agreement that would regulate booming clothing and textile imports from China but is disappointed that China rejected a "very generous proposal" this week, the chief U.S. negotiator said.

    U.S. trade pepresentative Rob Portman said the remaining differences, "with one exception which I'm not going to tell you about because we're still negotiating it," are not significant.

    "I would say we're very close," he said.

    Chinese and U.S. negotiators failed to reach an agreement in a fourth round of talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Beijing. U.S. industry groups had high hopes for a deal after the two sides made good progress in the previous round.

    China's clothing and textile exports to the United States jumped 54 percent in the first eight months of 2005 to US$17.7 billion. The surge follows the end of a global textile quota system on January 1 as the result of a 1994 world trade deal.

    "We had a very generous proposal for the Chinese but it was not generous enough for them," Portman told reporters. "Frankly, I'm disappointed. I was ready and willing to fly the 22 hours to Beijing, and the 22 hours back, in order to finalize" a deal.

    Portman said he remained "forever hopeful" that the two sides could strike a deal.

    The United States already has curbed imports of Chinese-made shirts, trousers, bras, underwear, yarn and other textile and clothing products under a special "safeguards" provision of China's entry into the WTO in 2001.

    The measure allows member countries to cap the growth in China's textile and clothing shipments at 7.5 percent when there is a market-disrupting surge.

    The United States wants China to negotiate a comprehensive agreement governing clothing and textile trade until the end of 2008, when the safeguard measure expires, in order to provide more predictability for industry on both sides.

    The main sticking point this week was China's demand that new quotas increase 20 percent in 2007 and 30 percent in 2008, industry officials said. The United States offered 12.5 percent growth in 2007 and 14 percent in 2008, they said.

    Portman did not mention any specific growth rates. But he indicated the United States was prepared to accept an agreement that would allow more growth than the 7.5 percent increase it provides under the safeguard for individual products.

    "Chinese manufacturers, and the very significant employment they provide in China, will now face -- if we can not reach an agreement -- a very unpredictable future with lower percentage increases," Portman said.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)