TRADE: Developing Countries Protest Quotas on Textile Imports

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 19 2000 (IPS) - A bloc of developing nations that export textiles and clothing lashed out against the industrial powers for failing to live up to their commitments to free up trade in the textile and apparel industry.

The 24 developing countries grouped in the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (ITCB) called on the European Union (EU), the United States and Canada to take “concrete steps toward real and meaningful liberalisation of textile and apparel quotas.”

The ITCB accused the three powers — which along with Japan constitute the pillars of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) multilateral system — of having “long maintained quota restrictions against imports of textiles and clothing from developing countries.”

The ITCB is comprised of Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, China, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong-China, India, Indonesia, Macau-China, the Maldives, Mexico, North Korea, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uruguay. Cuba, Mauritius, Singapore and Vietnam participate as observers.

The president of the ITCB, Stuart Harbison — the permanent representative to the WTO from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China — complained that the three powers had eliminated a mere fraction of their quotas.

According to multilateral accords reached by the Uruguay Round — the WTO’s predecessor — in 1994, quotas on textiles and clothing from developing countries are to be “progressively phased out” by industrialised nations over a period of 10 years.

“The failure to live up to developing countries’ legitimate expectations has damaged their confidence in the WTO system and in the process of multilateral trade liberalisation,” said the president of the ITCB.

Harbison continued the barrage of protests by exporter countries in letters addressed to Canadian foreign trade minister Pierre S. Pettigrew, European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, and US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky.

The three letters protest the scant progress made toward compliance with the textile accords reached during the Uruguay Round, and urge industrialised countries to speed up the liberalisation process.

“Developed countries carry the responsibility for leadership and to inspire confidence among developing countries,” the ITCB maintained.

“Besides assisting developing countries, the dismantling of textile quotas would bring huge benefits for consumers and businesses in the restraining countries themselves,” it added.

A study recently commissioned by Sweden’s ministry of foreign relations reached the conclusion that EU restrictions on imports of textiles and apparel are becoming a burden for European consumers.

Protectionist policies cost the EU more than 25 billion dollars a year, or around 280 dollars for a family of four, according to the report out of Stockholm.

The bloc of exporting countries said only 33 percent of the textile and clothing industry had been integrated into the Uruguay Round accords on the liberalisation of trade by the countries using quotas. However, that integration has chiefly involved products excluded from the quota system in the first place, said the ITCB.

Canada, for example, removed just 29 of a total 295 quotas on textile imports, while the European Union eliminated 14 out of 219. In effect, less than five percent of European quotas on imports were lifted, while the proportion was even smaller in the case of clothing.

The United States, meanwhile, removed only 13 of a total of 750 quotas, involving just six percent of the imports restricted by the quota system. As in the case of Europe, even stricter quotas apply to imports of clothing.

The bloc of exporters, which account for 40 to 45 percent of global trade in textiles and clothing, underlined the importance of that industry for countries of the South.

Textiles and garments comprise around 20 percent of manufactured exports by developing nations, and the sector accounts for an even greater share of the exports of the least developed nations.