Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 11 Jan – Brazilian textile producers plan to increase the number of products subject to import quotas, the director of the Brazilian Clothing and Textile Industry Association (Abit), Fernando Pimentel said Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

The current agreement, signed in 2006 and which is valid until the end of 2008, outlines limits for eight categories of textiles, which total around 70 different types of products and are the equivalent of 60 percent of imports in the sector, with Abit proposing that the agreement be extended and widened.

Even with the restriction on Chinese products, the trade deficit of the textile sector was US$648 million in 2007, which was much higher than the US$33 million deficit posted in 2006.

Imports totalled US$3 billion, a rise of 40 percent against the US$2.1 billion seen in 2006, and exports in 2007 totaled US$2.4 billion, or 11.9 percent more than the US$2.1 billion seen the previous year.

The new chairman of Abit, Aguinaldo Diniz Filho, said that the association would start negotiating, along with the Ministry for Industry and Foreign Trade, in the first half of this year, with the Chinese mission due to visit Brazil in the period, at a date as yet to be scheduled.

The chairman of Brazilian export and investment promotion agency, Apex, Alessandro Teixeira said that, whilst China was a threat to the textile sector it was also an opportunity.

The Brazilian textile sector had estimated turnover of 34.6 billion reais in 2007, as compared with 33 billion in 2006. (macauhub)