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Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has again urged government to lift the import quotas on Chinese clothing and textiles.
The ill-advised import quotas have decimated local clothing
manufacturers amid reduced fabric supply and higher material sourcing costs, DA spokesperson Pierre Rabie said on Tuesday.
The party had written to Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi
Mpahlwa, calling for an urgent review of the quotas, he said.
Local manufacturers - now grappling with the additional problems of rising costs, power cuts, and dampened consumer spending - had to source inferior fabric products at a higher price.
Knock-on-effect
Cut, make and trim operations (CMTs), had been particularly hard
hit. "Foschini, which supplies CTMs with fabric and trim and then buys the finished product from them, has recently indicated that, because of inadequate fabric volumes, it is only able to supply 16 factories with work. It supplied 30 factories before the quotas were implemented."
Recent reports indicated that the industry was "shedding jobs" and textile mills' employment numbers had shrunk by around 10% this year alone.
The department was considering an extension of the quotas.
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"As the quotas have had the opposite effect on the industry than was intended, the DA is calling for an urgent review of the situation with the possibility that the quotas be lifted," Rabie said.
- Sapa