In the past year, the trade of textiles has evolved in some low-income Asian countries, erasing fears that it might crash following the removal of textile quotas in Jan.1, 2005, said a report released on Friday during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) meeting.

    The report, conducted by the Institute of BFA, a regional non-governmental organization in Asia, is the second of its kind since 2005. It found that despite the removal of textile quotas, some smaller low-income countries have managed to expand their textile trade alongside China.

    Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the BFA, described this phenomenon as "one of the striking findings of the report".
As the quota system had served to artificially inflate the number of countries manufacturing garments for export by restricting output of the most competitive producers, the elimination of quotas was expected to result in a consolidation into a smaller number of garment manufacturing countries with the strongest competitive positions.

    In Asia, a number of low-income countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, depended heavily on quota-protected markets in the United States and the European Union for their garment exports.

    The report said China, as expected, has been the main beneficiary of the removal of global textile quotas, but low-income countries in developing Asia countries have also fared well.

    China's textile and clothing exports maintained a good growth momentum in 2005, while textile exports from low-income developing economies in Asia, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, have also "done reasonably well", the report said.

    During the first half of 2005, Cambodia's garment exports reached 820 billion US dollars, rising by 1.4 percent over the same period of 2004."The fact that a number of countries have managed to increase exports to the United States even in product categories where Chinese exports have grown substantially suggests that there remains export opportunities for a range of developing countries," the report said.