Ahead of the launch of a media campaign to get the attention of EU policymakers, lobby group Euratex said in a statement that European clothing makers feared the forthcoming end of the current system of global import quotas at the end of this year.

"As this watershed date looms ever closer, decision-makers in the EU, with a few rare exceptions, appear indifferent to the coming storm, to the resultant company closures and job losses," Euratex said in a statement.

The United States has already used World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules to impose limits on some Chinese clothing imports.

The European Commission, which handles trade matters for the European Union, has so far avoided similar measures, but on Thursday launched a probe to see if certain types of textiles from China are being dumped on the EU market.

Euratex urged EU countries to launch a monitoring system, which would check Chinese textiles on day-to-day basis to make sure they are not being sold artificially cheaply or that counterfeit goods were not being shipped to the EU.

If the monitoring system found that China was not respecting WTO rules, then limits on its textiles imports to the EU could be imposed, Euratex added.

Many countries have expressed fears that the end of global textiles trade quotas will lead to a flood of Chinese products on all markets. China insists it respects WTO rules and that it can ship cheaper products due to being more competitive.