China exports more textiles but impact less severe than expected: ILO
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one fifth since the controversial end of global quotas at the beginning
of the year, the International Labour Organisation said.
But although jobs were lost in some other textile producing nations
following the change, ILO experts said the free rein given to the
world's biggest textile producers had not produced as big a shock as
originally feared.
"That's not to say there haven't been serious consequences. The job
losses, particularly in Africa, have been serious," Sally Paxton, an
executive director said at the beginning of a three-day meeting on the
textiles trade at the ILO headquarters in Geneva.
Under a 1995 agreement between trading nations, a 40-year-old
international trading regime for the textile and clothing industry came
to an end on January 1 this year.
The Multifibre Arrangement effectively limited the amount industrial
giants like China and India could export into major markets.
China's textile exports grew by 20.5 percent, while its clothing
exports rose by 22 percent during the first seven months of the year,
according to official data compiled by the ILO.
China now accounts for 28 percent of world clothing exports and 15.8
percent of textiles exports. It already headed global trade in the
sector beforehand.
A surge in cheap Chinese textiles and clothing prompted the European
Union to reach an agreement with Beijing this summer to resume limits
on some Chinese imports as a temporary measure.
The United States invoked protective measures allowed by the World
Trade Organisation and sought a similar accord with China, but the two
sides failed to reach an understanding earlier this month.
A report for the ILO meeting released earlier this month acknowledged
that the liberalisation of the textiles trade had created "huge
uncertainty among producing countries, workers and enterprises
worldwide".
"However the overall picture is more contrasted than expected," it
added.
Data released Monday showed that many other established textile
producers, including European countries, had also benefited by amounts
that exceeded or equalled the overall 10.3 percent growth in exports in
the sector.
Germany's clothing exports rose 16.5 percent while exports from Italy's
grew by 10.3 percent in the first seven months of 2005. Clothing from
Austria and the Czech Republic also performed strongly.
Clothing exports from France grew by eight percent, but French textiles
exports fell by 3.1 percent. Britain, the Netherlands and Greece also
suffered a decline.
Smaller developing country producers, particularly China's more
immediate neighbours, appeared to have suffered the most.
Clothing exports from South Korea (-20.7 percent) and Taiwan (-19.7)
fell sharply. Textiles exports from Mexico (-1.1) also fell, but it
trade more clothing.
Little data on African producers was available. Morocco, which had
warned of an erosion of its trade in the European market, suffered a
4.8 percent cut in clothing trade.
The ILO was unable to give detailed estimates of the impact on jobs.
"There is a decline in employment in Africa, that is a trend that is
clear. Employment also declined in Europe and the United States," said
ILO textiles specialist Jean-Paul Sajhau.
Labour experts said the pattern of job losses perpetuated a trend
observed in the textiles industry worldwide for the past decade. -
AFP/dt/de