The two remaining candidates in the race to head the World Trade Organisation cautioned the US and the European Union on Tuesday against applying emergency curbs on Chinese textiles exports, warning that such a move would smack of hypocrisy.

In separate interviews, Pascal Lamy of France and Carlos Pérez del Castillo of Uruguay said western nations could not complain that they were facing a crisis when they had been given 10 years to prepare for the worldwide lifting of quotas, which, since January, has allowed China to boost its clothing exports. The French government has been leading calls for Brussels to act to restrict Chinese imports, but Mr Lamy, a former EU trade commissioner, said: “It is not the law of the jungle and the WTO rules were clearly set.”