‘Quotas won’t solve cheap Chinese imports’

ALAN PEAT IN THE long run, the dispute over imports of low-price Chinese textiles and clothing cannot be solved by subsidies or quotas, according to London’s newspaper, the Independent. The trend is towards globalisation, and industrialised countries must embrace the so-called “knowledge economy” while manufacturing is left to cheap-labour economies, said the report. “To be competitive, advanced economies must concentrate on style and design, high technology and high quality.” Attempted controls on imports of cheap Chinese textiles and clothing in the European Union (EU) have only pushed up consumer costs, plus put upward pressure on inflation.