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Namibia:Textile industry to enjoy competitive edge
under the AGOA in post-MFA regime |
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2005-1-10
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A senior government official has said that the end of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) textile and garment quotas would not effect on Namibia’s textile industry, as several other developing countries brace themselves for massive job losses.
The WTO countries, including the European Union (EU) on January 1, which effectively means that cheap clothing from rich and powerful nations will now flood the United States -developing countries’ main market - and manufacturers from the poorer nations will not be able to compete, lifted all quotas on textile imports.
Permanent Secretary of Trade and Industry Andrew Ndishishi believes that Namibia will enjoy a competitive edge under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives its textiles duty-free access to the United States.
"Yes, countries like China have more quality products, but we will still be fine because what has been lifted is only import quotas, the [import] duties will still apply to those countries, while we will continue to enjoy duty-free access to the US market," Ndishishi said in an interview with The Namibian.
According to him, the real effect of the lifting of the WTO textile quotas will differ from country to country.
The garment and textile industry of Namibia only got of the ground less than five years ago after Malaysian textile giants Ramatex set up a textile plant in Windhoek, which currently employs more than 3 000 people.
Other investments have come from Malaysian and Taiwanese garment producers Rhino Garments and Tai Wah Garments.
Namibia’s eighty percent of textiles and garments are exported to the US and 20 percent to the European Union.
Lesotho, sub-Saharan Africa''s largest exporter of textiles to the US, has warned that as many as 50 000 workers could lose textile industry jobs due to the removal of quota regime.
Trade unions representing textile workers from across the African continent are reportedly pushing for a meeting with WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi to discuss the potential job losses in their countries.
Textile-exporting developing countries are feared that other forms of trade restrictions, like strict visa requirements, trans-shipment and anti-dumping measures, could spring up with the phasing-out of the quota regime.
Under AGOA, the US demands that beneficiary countries prevent trans-shipments of textile and apparel products into the US market. The US want a system that allows heavy penalties for those found guilty of trans-shipments.
Customs authorities of the US have placed stringent rules on AGOA exports to ensure that trans-shipments, mainly from the Far East, do not enter the US under the guise of AGOA.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick last month undertook a tour of several southern African countries, including Namibia, in a bid to allay concerns raised over the lifting of WTO textile quotas.
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