EU regulations cause headaches for textile importers

However, EU officials assure that the decision will be made within the next three weeks. "I do not know how to plan 2004 deliveries and I cannot buy everything in advance," said Janusz Mitoraj, president of CAM, one of the largest domestic importers of clothes and shoes from China. The quotas are decided for the EU as a whole and importers from all countries have to fight to get a share, and the shares are simply decided on who applies first. The quotas for 2004 have been divided in two parts, the first are valid January-April and the second from May until December. Polish companies, which submitted requests for import licenses to the Economy Ministry that will run to the end of the year, should hear from the Ministry in February or at the beginning of March. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.M.