Speech: EU – China Textiles: ‘Manage change and adjustment, not trade’

Text of a speech by Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner, Speech to textile producers, Palazzo della Regione, Florence, Italy, 6 June 2005. In this speech Mandelson set out the rationale for his position on rising Chinese textile exports. He argued for a policy that braces EU producers for change while allowing China to benefit from textile liberalisation. Rejecting a return to the quota system for textiles, Mandelson argued his policy was based on the need to 'manage change and adjustment, rather than to manage trade'.