The occasion was the annual conference of International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) held this year at Dresden, Germany.
Notwithstanding the fact that China is not even a member of the ITMF, it dominated almost all the plenary sessions at the conference.
There was, of course, good reason for it to do so. At about $ 60 billion in exports in 2002, China is now the single largest exporter of textiles and clothing products to the USA and Japan, and a very significant one to the EU.
Since its entry into the WTO, its exports to USA have increased by over 125 per cent in the last one year, even as quotas still hamstring its true potential to take up an even greater market share.
It is now the largest producer of cotton, and amongst the largest consumers of all categories of fibres
These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of