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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China Boosting Share of Global Market |
| 2004-12-25 |
| On everything from sheets to shirts, napkins to neckties, one label is set to become increasingly widespread: Made in China. Already, the world's most populous nation exports more than $60 billion in textiles and clothing annually, and some analysts predict that changes to global trade rules at the end of this year will hand China the biggest share of the $350 billion global trade market. That's a prospect that terrifies textile producers in rich and poor countries around the world, from Bangladesh and Morocco to the United States and the European Union. "A Chinese takeover would shake the economic and political stability of dozens of struggling nations," said the Global Alliance for a Fair Textile Trade, a U.S.-led grouping of trade organizations from 49 countries. For decades, industrialized countries have maintained quotas on textile imports to protect their own producers from foreign competition. The World Trade Organization started phasing out the quotas in 1995, and members have agreed to remove them altogether by Jan. 1. "It's clear it's going to change the game," said Jean-Paul Sajhau, who heads the textiles division of the U.N. International Labor Organization. "Countries which developed because of the existence of quotas will be in difficulty now because the market will be more open," he said. A WTO study this year estimated that eliminating the quotas would raise China's share of U.S. clothing imports to about 50 percent from 16 percent in 1995, and China's share of EU imports to 29 percent from 18 percent. WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi describes the end of quotas as an important milestone that will benefit the global economy as a whole. China, India and other textile exporters say it will finally create a level playing field and allow the market to decide who exports what and where, as already happens in most other areas of goods trade. Producers elsewhere are complaining. The Global Alliance has claimed China is competing unfairly by keeping its currency undervalued while paying subsidies and giving loans to its manufacturers in an attempt to control the global market. "Cheating should not be rewarded," it said. Euratex, a group of European textile producers, claims China's 2001 entry into the WTO has led to a flood of imports and price declines of up to 75 percent. "These plummeting prices are inexplicable and bear no relation to reality," Euratex said. "But then China is no market economy, and cannot demonstrate its respect of many internationally agreed rules." The French Fashion Institute estimates some 325,000 of Europe's 2.5 million textile and clothing workers could lose their jobs because of the change. In the United States, the chief executive of textile manufacturer Carolina Mills is already seeing the damage. "In the last two days, we've had three customers announce they are going out of business," CEO Steve Dobbins said in mid-December. "It's in anticipation of those quotas being eliminated. We see our customers going away." Predictions of job losses in the developing world vary widely. Bangladesh's labor unions said almost half the country's 1.8 million textile jobs could go, while the government puts the figure at 200,000 and some experts say it could be just 80,000. Under the current system, when India reaches its export quotas, textile buyers often turn to neighboring Bangladesh. After the quotas are scrapped on Jan. 1, Bangladesh won't get any more of that spillover business. "My family will starve to death if I don't work," said 20-year-old Fatema Begum, who supports her daughter and parents on the $33 she brings home each month from a Dhaka sewing factory. Retailers around the world, however, stand to benefit from lower wholesale prices and higher margins... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |