Textile export contract with China to bring relief
29 Jun '06
2 min read
Gus Mandigora, a tralac researcher, comments on South Africa's textile export restraint agreement with China.
The Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, recently completed a visit to South Africa, in which a number of agreements and undertakings were initialled and/or signed between their respective governments.
For South Africa's beleaguered textile industry, the most important of these agreements was a voluntary export restraint agreement that will seek to restrict Chinese textile exports to South Africa. While this move has been welcomed in some quarters, some commentators have expressed concern over the lack of transparency and enforceability of this agreement.
Concern has also been expressed over the potential of other low-cost textile producers such as Bangladesh and India to simply fill the gap left by the Chinese and leave the South African industry in the same predicament as before.
Finally, given the fact that South Africa's textile industry had several years to respond to the impending expiry of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) and failed to do so, it seems unlikely that a voluntary agreement with China will enable the industry to adjust this time round.
This raises the following question: Will the export restraint agreement with China actually bring any relief to South Africa's textile industry?
tralac is a not-for-profit organisation, building trade law capacity inthe southern Africa region; in governments, the private sector and civil society.
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