The US and China have announced a broad pact to regulate trade in textiles and clothing over the next three years, with Beijing agreeing to curb its exports to the US sharply in exchange for guaranteed access to its biggest export market.

The deal, signed on Tuesday in London by Rob Portman, US trade representative, and Bo Xilai, Chinese commerce minister, will set quotas covering nearly half of Chinese textile imports into the US. It comes less than a year after the end of a 30-year scheme of global quotas, which was supposed to usher in an era of free trade in one of the most heavily protected manufacturing goods.