Over the past week FTW has received several enquiries from readers about the quota system on imports of textiles and clothing items from China. “You’re our best source of information,” said one of our readers, frustrated by the lack of information from official channels. “Has it officially ended?” he asked – commenting that nothing in writing had been released by the department of trade & industry or the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) to confirm its termination. But according to Brian Brink, executive director of the Textile Federation, this was normal practice given the original wording of the quota system legislation. “In the original government gazette notice,” he told FTW, “the legislation had a termination date of December 31, 2008. “Nothing was done by government to change this, so the legislation automatically expired on that stated date.”
