Though China and the United States failed to reach an agreement at their third round of talks on textiles in San Fransisco by Wednesday, experts agreed "progress" has been made and would pave the way for further talks.
"Though there was no deal reached at the talk, the two sides have shown sincere desire for further negotiations, which is a kind of progress," said Zhang Xiaoji, a research fellow with the State Council Development and Research Center.
There still exist substantial differences over some fundamental issues between the two sides. Both parties agreed to continue textile negotiations in a bid to find a solution to their disputes over the issue and create an environment for the stable development of bilateral textile trade, said a spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce after the talks ended.
Meanwhile, the Office of the United States Trade Representative issued an announcement on its Website, saying the two sides are working toward a broad solution which provides more certainty to the textile market.
"The result of the third round of talks is within expectation as the two sides diverge greatly on many details," Zhang said.
According to overseas reports, the United States brought a "package" schedule to the talks covering a broad range of textile products and setting narrow growth limits which were unacceptable to the Chinese side.
Experts predicted that the two sides would hold the next round of talks before the end of this month, when the US government is scheduled to decide whether or not to launch another safeguard measure against six categories of Chinese textile products.
About 20 categories of Chinese textile products are under US safeguard curbs or investigations since the global quota system expired on January 1.
Shen Anjing, president of the Shanghai Textile Technology Institution, is optimistic about the final result of the talks, saying that the two sides will finally reach some kind of agreement like that with the European Union.
China struck a deal with the EU in June that restricts the growth of clothing shipments in 10 categories to between 8 and 12.5 percent through 2007.
"The US market needs China's textile products, and the so-called safeguard measures will harm the interests of not only American retailers but also consumers," Shen said. "The latest development in the EU should give the US some warning."
Recently, the import restrictions on Chinese textiles have harmed European textile traders, consumers and retailers. Some EU countries, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, are pressing the European Commission to relax its quotas on China's textile and apparel products.
China's domestic textile industry is expecting a satisfactory outcome.
 "We hope that a deal can be reached as soon as possible to create a clear trade environment for textile traders both at home and abroad," said Bai Jinliang, vice president of Jiangsu Suntian International Corporation, an export company.
(Xinhua)