Moves afoot to shut out cheap imports
LEONARD NEILL
A TASK team that will include representatives of the textile industry is being set up by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to investigate short-term remedies to counter the importation of low-quality products into South Africa.
The surge of imports from China, for example, is hurting the industry in this country, says Lionel October, DTI’s deputy director in charge of enterprise and industry development.
“China’s economies of scale mean it is massively competitive at the low end of the market. They have a vast pool of cheap, skilled labour,” he says. The results of this are evident, says Ebrahim Patel, general secretary of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), who points out that import volumes from mainland China increased by 80% last year
Short-term steps, such as increasing import tariffs to the maximum level allowed by the WTO, strengthening anti-dumping measures, introducing safeguard tariffs against low-cost producers like China, and improving customs controls to stem illegal imports could be taken to protect local jobs, he claims.
According to Sactwu 20000 workers, about 10% of the industry’s workforce, lost their jobs last year through retrenchments
and factory closures.
Cheap imports, coupled with reduced export competitiveness due to
the strengthening rand, were the reasons.
Workers put on short time and those in service industries whose livelihoods were affected were not included in these figures.
At the same time, the clothing industry needs to restructure to move local firms up the value chain
and improve the skills base, he said.
