World textile trade will limit excessive increase of industry

The heads of the three international agencies warned the leaders of the G20 that their government had formulated new trade restrictions in the past six months.

Textiles, clothing and cotton trade are all set targets. From mid-October 2010 to mid-April 2011, 122 countries have set aside 122 new restrictions. These measures include raising tariffs, anti-dumping investigations, permits and export restrictions.

"They seem to be under increasing pressure to resist the restraint of protectionism," said Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the United Nations Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). And Supachai Panitchpakdi, the head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, made the above warning on Tuesday (May 24) when they submitted their report to the G20.

Lamy said that collective measures “cause anxiety”, that is, after the recent global financial crisis, trade protectionism may gain momentum.

New measures include Argentina’s re-ban on the import of used clothes, the expansion of its product list, including textiles and apparel, and the use of non-automatic import licenses.

On February 24, Russia (and Belarus and Kazakhstan, which are part of a common free trade area) increased the import tariff on woven fabrics from 5% to 10%.

Similarly, India banned the export of cotton yarn from March 31, and issued a notice requesting that cotton yarn export be registered at the General Administration of Foreign Trade.

Turkey is a major exporter of textiles and garments. Turkey also initiated a survey on imported textiles and clothing in January. It is expected that temporary taxes will be imposed on July 22.

The WTO estimates that the new import restrictions adopted by the G20 economy will involve approximately US$56.5 billion, or 0.6% of the total G20 imports.