‘Quota plea lacked political clout’

THE PLEA for WTO quotas to be extended to 2008 was an effort to get some sort of breathing space from the Chinese onslaught, according to SA Textile Federation’s Brian Brink. They were the last of the remaining quotas under the WTO agreement, and were due to go at the end of this year. But it was a private sector plea, and Brink feels that the private sector is not really represented on the WTO. The appeal seems to have fallen on deaf ears. It was originally initiated by the US textile industry, he said. After filtering down through the US, Turkey, Mexico, southern Africa, Central America, the Caribbean basin to South America, it became the “Istanbul Declaration” - an appeal from the private sector in 33 countries for the WTO to delay the removal of the last quotas for another four years. An added problem in lobbying the WTO was the fact that the declaration remained private sector, and gained no official government support along the way. “It was originally hoped that the US government would support their textile producers,” said Brink, “but the sensitivity of US-Chinese relations kept them out of it.” Other governments showed equal hesitation in becoming involved, he added, and the appeal lacked the political muscle to influence the WTO. Next step, said Brink, is likely to be the collapse of much of the African clothing and textiles trade - with little hope of any further form of control on Chinese subsidies and cut-price exports.