The Federation of Unions of South Africa have lauded President Mbeki's moves to protect South Africa's clothing and textile sector from cheap Chinese imports.

"Fedusa welcomes the announcement that the government has reached an agreement with China, to protect our clothing and textile sector," Dennis George, the union's acting leader said.

"In our view, this is too little too late. Many quality jobs were already destroyed," George said in a statement.

George said unions had not seen the agreement. "We were not asked to make inputs into such an agreement."