Japan may not impose emergency curbs on towel products from China and Vietnam, due to a slowdown in imports, government officials said Friday.

Recent trade data make it difficult for the government to prove a surge in imports, a prerequisite to restrict imports under the "safeguard" mechanism of the World Trade Organization, the officials said.

It is the same mechanism used by the U.S. earlier in the week to impose steel tariffs.

The government plans to make a final decision at the end of this month; it had set an April 15 deadline for the decision after postponing an initial October deadline.

According to data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the nation's imports of towel products, of which about 80 percent come from China, grew 15.4 percent in 2000.

The growth slowed to 6.3 percent in 2001.

Imports fell 7.3 percent in January from a year earlier, and the government will wait to see what they did in February before making the final decision, the officials said.

Even if imports from China resume a sharp increase after April, the government has the option to invoke the special safeguard mechanism.

Tokyo also plans to start private-sector talks for orderly trade involving towel makers and distributors from both countries, according to the officials.

Such talks are expected to be effective in curbing towel imports, as Japanese producers and distributors account for around 40 percent of towel products exported to Japan from China.

The government opened its probe into the feasibility of towel safeguards in April on a claim from the Japan Towel Industrial Association that the industry is being threatened by surging imports.

The WTO transitional safeguard mechanism on textiles allows a member nation to restrict imports from specific countries for up to three years to give its domestic industry time to adjust to pressures from soaring imports.