The administration of South Africa decided on 1st September to impose import restrictions for a vast array of textile and clothing products originating from China. The quota will be applied on 200 tariff lines which cover 4 big textile product categories with growths ranging from 7,8% to 20% and 8 big clothing product families with growth ranging from 7,8% to 16% maximum.
While in June a China-South Africa cooperation agreement was signed, it was already clear that the South African administration would be forced to curb down textile and clothing imports from China as the Trade Unions filled a case for safeguard as permitted by the WTO accession protocol of China to the WTO.
The enquiry that followed confirmed that a large share of the +/- 50.000 workers having lost their jobs in the textile pipeline was due to cheap unrestrained imports from China. Consequently the South African administration published early September a decision to limit by quota imports from China from 28th September 2006 until 31st December 2008. In the end - due to the short notice between the announcement and the implementation - it was decided finally that the restrictions will be implemented by the 1st January 2007 until the 31st December 2008.
Source: Euratex
