S. whereas, according to the Worker Rights Consortium, it would add less than 10 cents to the factory price of each of the 7 billion garments that Bangladesh sells each year to Western brands if the country’s 5 000 garment factories were to be elevated to Western safety standards within 5 years; whereas there are no indications that prices of garment and textile articles have increased during the last two years;

A number of Member States have offered material and practical support through the community mechanism for civil protection. According to the latest reports to the MIC, so far Austria is offering 200 tents and 5000 blankets; Bulgaria is offering 8.5 tonnes of tents and blankets as well as medical supplies; France has sent an assessment and evaluation team, a medical team and 4.5 tonnes of medical material and supplies; Italy has sent 25 tonnes of supplies including tents, first-aid kits, kitchen sets, sanitary materials, pumps and electricity generators; Malta will provide 15 to 20 tonnes of blankets, foodstuffs and water; Slovakia is ready to ship 20 to ...[+++]nnes of blankets, tents, clothing and medical sedans; Poland is offering a staffed field hospital; Spain has despatched 10 tonnes of tents, blankets, warm clothes, body bags and medical devices.

The Commission has submitted a new proposal aimed at authorising fresh concessions regarding additional possibilities of importing textiles and clothing in quantities exceeding the import quotas that were renegotiated in September 2005, thus acting in the interests of the big importer groups rather than of the textile and clothing industry in the Member States.

In order to implement one of the key commitments taken at the end of the last WTO Trade Round (“Uruguay Round”) in 1994, the Commission has adopted a proposal for the elimination of the quotas applying on imports of textile and clothing products from WTO countries.

Following the speedy increase of Chinese TC exports to the EU, China and the EU have decided to set up a “textiles dialogue” to ensure a smooth transition to a quota-free textiles trade environment from 2005, when the remaining WTO quotas on textiles and clothing trade will be eliminated.

In recent years China has become the EU's largest supplier of textiles and clothing, with Chinese textiles and clothing export to the EU, amounting to almost 5 billion ECUs in 1993, further increasing in 1994.