The Prime Minister had announced that an Apparel and Garment Making Centre shall be constructed in all North Eastern states. Work on such a Centre is taking shape. Today, Minister of State for Textiles (I/C), Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, laid the foundation stone for an Apparel & Garment Making Centre at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh in the presence of Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju and Minister of Textile & Handicrafts of Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Tapang Taloh.
Work on such a Centre for Nagaland has already begun, after the foundation stone was laid by the Union Textiles Minister, on 24th February, 2015. Shri Gangwar laid the foundation stone for an Apparel and Garment Making Centre in Manipur on 24th March, 2015 and in Sikkim on 25th March, 2015. The initiative comes under the North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) of the Ministry of Textiles. NERTPS is an umbrella scheme for the development of various segments of textiles, i.e. silk, handlooms, handicrafts and apparels & garments. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs. 1038.10 crore in the 12th Five Year Plan.
Each state will have one centre with three units, each having 100 machines. For local entrepreneurs with requisite background, required facilities to start a unit will be provided in ‘plug and play’ mode. Once such entrepreneurs get established, they can set up their own units, allowing the facility to be provided to new entrepreneurs. Each Apparel and Garment Making Centre set up under the initiative is estimated to generate direct employment for 1,200 people. The land of around 6300 sqm (1.54 acre) is allotted by the East Siang District Administration and the 18 Crores dream project has been granted by the Ministry of Textile, (GoI) under North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS).
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
The discord between the Centre and states over the contours of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) seems hard to be reconciled. The Centre, which has agreed to provide constitutionally-guaranteed GST compensation and keep petroleum products out of the proposed comprehensive indirect tax in the initial few years to address the states’ concerns, is peeved at their new demand that the combined GST rate should be above the revenue neutral rate (RNR) of 27% projected by a designated think tank for most transactions. The central government is concerned that a higher GST rate could rob the country of the potential economic gains from the multi-point, destination-based tax. Stating that a steep GST rate could dent compliance, particularly at the retail level, a finance ministry official told FE that it could also be difficult to justify such a rate politically. “Low compliance level would hit revenue productivity and in turn prevent any lowering of the tax rates in future,” he said.
“GST implementation is supposed to bring down the indirect tax burden (on businesses). A rate above what is currently applied would defeat the very purpose of GST,” added the official. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy’s recommendation of a 26.68% GST rate (RNR) is almost equal to the sum of the prevailing highest state VAT rate (14.5%) and median excise duty (12.5%). With the hike in service tax proposed in the recent budget to 14%, with the state VAT, the combined rate could be 1.5 percentage point higher than NIPFP’s RNR. The weighted average VAT rate will be much lower (many merit goods attract 5-6% tax) and so would be the average excise incidence and so, the combined GST rate, also considering that it would capture larger base, could be much lower.
Officials from the centre and state governments held discussions on Thursday and Friday ahead of the meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers slated for May 7 and 8 to arrive at a consensus. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and state finance ministers are likely to meet on April 22. The panel has not yet accepted the 27% RNR suggested by NIPFP and sought revised projections. Sources said the fresh estimate of RNR need not necessarily be lower than the initial projection considering that the base year and a host of assumptions are to be revised. The committee’s chairman and Kerala finance minister KM Mani had told FE last Friday that states were of the view that a GST 27% was ‘not sufficient’.
The Centre believes states’ concern for revenue loss from GST roll out is not realistic considering the fact that their demands for guaranteeing compensation for such losses has been incorporated in the Constitution (122nd) Amendment Bill itself. Also, as demanded by them, petroleum products would be temporarily kept out of GST in the initial years of the new regime, and liquor, until the Constitution is amended further. Petroleum products account for 32.5% of the combined centre-state revenues (excluding corporate tax and dividend distribution tax levied by the Centre). Besides, exporting states are allowed to levy an extra 1% on inter-state sales. New Delhi believes these provisions would take care of states’ revenue loss fears. Arriving at a unified tax rate applicable on goods as well as services, which would yield the same revenue to the Centre and states as at present, has been complicated by various states making random changes at their Value Added Tax rates and the point of taxation, said sources.
Rates for GST, which captures a much larger tax base, ideally ought to be significantly lower than current rates. The actual rate would be finalised by the proposed GST Council solely by consensus between central and state governments. The states had in 2010 opposed a much lower GST rate of 12% (7% for state GST and 5% for central GST) proposed by a task force associated with the 13th Finance Commission, calling it too low and impractical. The global average GST/VAT rate is 16.4%, while the average rate in Asia-Pacific is 9.88%. Canada and Nigeria have the lowest rate of 5%.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
Merchandise exports contracted a steep 21.06 per cent in March, the most in 67 months. This pulled down overall exports in 2014-15 by 1.23 per cent, the second decline in three years, as petroleum prices softened and demand abroad remained lacklustre. In the second half of 2014-15, exports fell every month except in November. For March, exports stood at $23.95 billion, against $30.34 billion a year earlier, showed official figures released on Friday. Before this, the steepest fall was in August 2009-10, when exports had contracted 23.59 per cent.
For 2014-15, merchandise exports declined to $310.53 billion from $314.41 billion in 2013-14. The government had set a target of $340 billion for 2014-15, 8.7 per cent higher than the actual figure. “Though exports have contracted for a whole year earlier, the fall in 2014-15 is the biggest in terms of the target set by the government,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor, State Bank of India. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, imports fell 13.44 per cent to $35.74 billion in March this year from $41.29 billion in March 2014. For 2014-15, overall imports contracted 0.59 per cent to $447.54 billion from $450.21 billion in 2013-14. Still, gold imports surged 93.86 per cent to $4.98 billion. A YES Bank analysis attributed this to stocking for the coming festive season, especially ‘Akshaya Tritiya’ on April 21. In March, gold prices fell 3.8 per cent month-on-month. Silver imports rose 193.73 per cent in March.
The trade deficit widened to a four-month high of $11.79 billion in March from $6.85 billion in February and $10.95 billion in March last year. This might have some impact on the country’s current account deficit for the March quarter. For 2014-15, the deficit increased to $137.01 billion from $135.8 billion in 2013-14. Aditi Nayar, senior economist, ICRA, said the trade deficit widened on account of a sharper-than-anticipated and fairly broad-based contraction in merchandise exports. “While we expect stable commodity prices to restrict the current account deficit at less than one per cent of gross domestic product in FY16, the weak export momentum remains a concern, as it might cast a pall over the economic recovery, especially considering the less-than-robust outlook for domestic demand,” she said. In March, oil imports stood at $7.41 billion, down 52.68 per cent from $15.66 billion in March last year. Non-oil imports rose 10.55 per cent to $28.33 billion from $25.62 billion a year earlier.
Cumulatively, oil imports declined 16.09 per cent to $138.26 billion in 2014-15, compared with $164.77 billion in 2013-14. In March, exports plummeted mainly due to a steep 59.58 per cent fall in petroleum product exports at $2.36 billion, compared with $5.84 billion in March 2014. Export by other sectors that constitute 68 per cent of India’s total export basket, such as engineering goods, electronic goods, gems and jewellery and chemicals also fared poorly in March, falling 2.55 per cent, 20.25 per cent, 8.36 per cent and 5.36 per cent, respectively. “This is disappointing. Sectors that contribute the most to the country’s total export basket have been falling consistently since the past three months,” said Ajay Sahai, chief executive and director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. He added the weak global trade outlook notwithstanding, there was an inherent problem in India’s export composition. “India is at the lower end of the export category, which is why our exports are adversely hit by a crash in inputs prices,” Sahai said.
Earlier this month, the government had released the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) for 2015-2020, offering a slew of incentives under two broad schemes — Merchandise Export from Indian Scheme and Services Export from India Scheme. It had set a target of $900 billion of goods and services export. According to YES Bank, the new FTP will provide continuity and stability to Indian exports, as a review will be carried out after every two and a half years. The contraction in India’s exports in 2014-15 is the third in the past six years. In 2012-13, exports had fallen 1.85 per cent to $300 billion from $306 billion in 2011-12. In 2009-10, exports fell 3.4 per cent year-on-year.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
India's exports fell for the second time in three years, declining 1.23% in FY15 and falling short of meeting the last year's level by $4 billion. The exports last fiscal stood at $310 billion, according to the data released by the ministry of commerce on Friday. Imports on the other hand contracted by just 0.59% during the year. The gap between country's exports and imports widened slightly during the year to $137 billion as against $135 billion in the previous year. The outbound shipments in March contracted at the sharpest pace in over three years at 21.06%, fourth straight month of decline that could be attributed to a host of factors including even as low valuation of crude oil, sharp appreciation of rupee and demand fall. Most sectors posted a de-growth in exports during the month including gems and jewellery, engineering, electronics, leather, petroleum, etc. The trade deficit in March widened to a four month high in March on account of sharp uptick in gold imports. Gold imports nearly doubled in March compared to the previous year at $5 billion whereas silver imports shot up by 193% during the month. Petroleum exports fell by 59% during the month. Gold imports were relaxed last year after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped the 80:20 rule in November that mandated importers to export one-fifth of their consignment imported. The duty on gold that was raised in phases from 2% to 10% in 2013 to check the widening current account deficit has been left unchanged.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
The rupee on Friday snapped its two-day gaining streak against the dollar, by losing seven paise to end at 62.37 on fresh demand for the American currency from importers amid a fall in global crude oil prices. The rupee opened slightly lower at 62.33 at the interbank foreign exchange market against the previous closing level of 62.30, and hovered in a tight range of 62.30 and 62.39 before concluding at 62.37. It had gained 21 paise in the previous two days.
In the Asian markets, the dollar drifted lower against the yen and the euro today, as a lack of fresh trading cues made investors reluctant to take lopsided, strong positions ahead of the weekend. The greenback tracked the overnight weak tone against the yen - which followed downbeat initial jobless claims in the US - but remained trapped in an extremely tight range, given a lack of fresh cues. Amid thin liquidity, investors avoided making major moves especially after a series of soft economic data in the US.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said here today that the government needs to lend more support to reverse the declining exports trend as seen in the March 2015 trade data. Trade data of March 2015 showed a decline of over 21 per cent in exports and close to 13.5 per cent in imports. The continuous demand slowdown in global markets and liquidity problem has been responsible for double digit negative growth in exports during the last quarter of the fiscal 2014-15, FIEO President S C Ralhan said in a statement issued here. "What is of even more concern is the fact that decline during the last quarter of FY' 2014-15 was on a low base as exports declined during all three months of the quarter," he said, in the statement.
The FIEO chief said that almost all major sectors of exports including engineering goods, petroleum products, gems & jewellery, drugs & pharmaceuticals and organic & inorganic chemicals showed a negative growth, with almost all showing negative growth during the last three months. These sectors together accounts for over two third of India's exports, he said, in the statement. Moreover, uncertainty on policy front and high cost of credit did play albeit a smaller role in decline, he said. Ralhan expressed serious concern over the declining trend in exports from December 2014 onward, adding that Indian exporters need immediate attention, according to the statement. Ralhan asked for declaring exports as "priority sector" and restoring the interest subvention scheme for exporters to arrest the fall in exports, the statement said.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Skill training to be provided for as many as 20,000 persons working in the textiles sector in Haryana by the Technical Education Department during 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years under the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS). This scheme will be implemented in seven districts of Panipat, Bhiwani, Hisar, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ambala and Rohtak. The skill training would be provided through empanelled training providers in the sectors of weaving, spinning, knitting, garments, dyeing, block printing, embroidery, handloom and carpet, an official release said here today.
For the training, existing infrastructure of polytechnics would be utilised. Registration charges of Rs 500 per trainee would be charged and stipend of Rs 1,000 would be given to them after successful completion of the training. The duration of the training would be around four to six months and the cost of training would be borne by the government.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
India and Australia are likely to resume the stalled negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) next week. The talks, started in 2011, have been in limbo since January this year, owing to differences over offering duty-free access to Australian agricultural goods and investment protection. Australia’s Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb, who will visit India for the talks, is expected to arrive in Mumbai on Monday. He will be in Delhi on Wednesday and is expected to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitharaman. So far, six rounds of talks have been held between India and Australia over the CECA. There have been no negotiations since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power in May last year.
Australia had been aggressively pushing to have the trade deal with India. This will be Robb’s third visit in the past 10 months. He had informal talks with Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of the Confederation of Indian Industry Partnership Summit held in Jaipur in January. “We need to reverse the decline and rectify the imbalance by increasing India’s exports to Australia. We’re looking forward to an equitable and mutually beneficial CECA,” a senior commerce department official told Business Standard. Talks to conclude the CECA got stalled in 2013. This was after the finance minister told the commerce ministry that the investment chapters in all trade deals that were in the pipeline could only be discussed after the finalisation of the model text of a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.
Australia is keen to invest in India’s pharmaceutical, information technology, agriculture, and education sectors. India is expected to raise the problem of widening trade deficit with Australia. While India’s export to Australia stood at $2.3 billion, its imports from there reached $9.82 billion in 2013-2014. India had been trying to achieve greater market access in Australia for its generics and bulk drugs. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Act, 1989, now allows preferential treatment to imported drugs. Australia, on the other hand, had been keen on getting duty-free access for its dairy products. However, India had been reluctant to show relaxation in this as this sector employs a huge number of people and is considered to be a sensitive sector where industry is still in a nascent stage. Earlier, both sides had said the talks would be concluded by December this year.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
For all his interactions with Canadian business leaders and investors in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver to pitch investment in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most powerful message to them was his very presence in Canada. “It’s very significant that Canada is in the top group of countries he has visited in his first year. Part of it is of course due to our relationship from his Gujarat days,” said Stewart Beck, CEO of the Vancouver-based Asia Pacific Foundation. As Canada’s previous High Commissioner to India, Beck was a regular participant at Vibrant Gujarat summits. Early Thursday morning in Toronto, Modi met with the heads of major financial institutions. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper then joined him for a round table with a group of Canadian CEOs, including John Chen of Blackberry. Public reactions from those who attended were positive, signalling confidence in Modi’s leadership and India’s market potential.
On Thursday evening, after the two prime ministers had travelled to Vancouver, the Asia Pacific Foundation and the local chapters of C-IBC and TiE hosted a reception, and some of the guests later headed over to Harper’s state banquet for Modi in the Pacific port city. Robin Dhir, a TiE charter member and Strategic Advisor at the Fasken Martineau law firm, was one of three generations in his family – along with his father and son – who went to the Vancouver airport to see Modi and Harper arrive. After attending the banquet, Dhir said he found the vibes between the two leaders, who were together for virtually the entire duration of Modi’s visit to Canada, “extremely upbeat and complimentary”.
Modi’s meeting with Canadian pension funds takes forward the outreach by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who made a similar pitch in Toronto two years ago. Among the investments announced since then was CPPIB’s investment of $166 million in L&T last June. Peter Sutherland, board member of the Canada-India Business Council or C-IBC and a former High Commissioner to India, said pension funds were seeking clarity on various issues during Chidambaram’s visit, while Modi’s engagement showed a personal commitment at the highest level of the government. Experts see renewed optimism and confidence in India’s business environment following the change of government last year. “Canadian businesses were concerned towards the last couple of years of the UPA government that nothing was happening,” said Beck. “Even at the High Commission, we were working more closely with some states as it was difficult to get anything done at the central level.”
Modi is seen to be more decisive and clear-headed about his agenda, based on his own track record in Gujarat. Rana Sarkar, Co-Chairman and Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, said recent reforms in the insurance sector indicated a considerable move forward, and singled out land reform as the biggest test for the Modi government. “That’s the tipping point which will indicate political commitment,” Sarkar said. While expectations were not high regarding a quick conclusion to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or CEPA, Modi stated in Ottawa that the two countries would finalise a road map for CEPA by September, and that the equally long pending Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement or FIPPA would be concluded soon. “People would have liked to see FIPPA concluded during the visit, and more concrete action on CEPA,” said Sutherland. The original deadline for CEPA was 2013. The biggest announcement during Modi’s visit of course was the $350-million contract to Cameco Corp, to supply uranium for India’s nuclear power sector. Speaking at a community rally in Toronto on Wednesday night, Modi singled this out as one of the two major decisions taken on his current overseas tour to France, Germany and Canada, the other being the agreement signed in France to make nuclear reactor components in India.
Harper’s office also touted commercial agreements worth over $1.6 billion that were announced on the margins of the visit. Modi’s itinerary was, perhaps understandably, tilted towards meetings with big investors. A meeting in Toronto with small and medium business owners was cancelled despite being sold out days in advance. Indo-Canadians, many of whom are small business owners, were excited to welcome the prime minister, but felt a little left out of his schedule. “There was not too much for the Indo-Canadian business community, also not enough time to interact with us,” said Dharma Jain, President of the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Jain, who did get a handshake and photo-op with Modi at a dinner hosted by the Indian High Commissioner in Toronto, said the visit was a morale-booster for business ties.
The political elements of Modi’s visit often overshadowed his business agenda. Given the Harper government’s early outreach to Modi from his days as Gujarat chief minister, his schedule was packed with public events where he and Harper made joint appearances in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. This was interpreted as an attempt by Harper to capitalise on Modi’s popularity in the Indo-Canadian community ahead of federal elections in Canada this year. “There’s a strong degree of partisanship, especially from our government, instead of focusing on economic outcomes,” said Sarkar, who is a former President of the Canada-India Business Council, and a member of the opposition Liberal Party. Modi also met separately with Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau in Toronto. Modi departed Vancouver on Thursday night to head back home, having delivered the message that India was open for business. Said Sutherland, “The very fact that he came to Canada on a stand-alone visit, not on his way to or from the United States, shows a strong interest from the Indian side. We should act on that.” Dhir agreed, “It opened the door to do more.”
SOURCE: The Business Standard
At the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics - Spring Edition 2015 held in March from 18 to 20, Chinese textile industry continued its focus on ecology, high fashion and design. At the Verve for Design zone comprised of international design studios from Australia, China, France, Italy, England and more, suppliers were seen coming to pick up pamphlets on the latest design trends in China. London-based Circleline Design Studio explained that buyers are willing to pay high prices for designs which are unique. Hand-illustrated designs and those with gimmicks are most popular.
The sections Salon Europe and Milano Unica presented a lineup of textiles catered to high-end men’s fashion. Hield England, a textile manufacturer participating in Intertextile every season since 1993, commented that the Chinese market is following European trends, but there’s also a strong presence of domestic identity and young creativity. In terms of Asia, Japan is their biggest customer, but they predict that China will grow to the same size in a few years.
Blue Sign Technologies from Switzerland, along with other companies participating at the Intertextile expo explained that the textiles industry hasn’t caught up with the world trend of becoming environmentally friendly. Since the textile industry requires lots of water and chemicals, they need to be more proactive about overcoming environmental issues. Bernd Muller, a rep of Messe Frankfurt, with regards to the All About Sustainability zone said that ecology is a hot topic in China now, and laws are being created in line with these trends. The country is very large, both as a manufacturer and also as a consumer. The amount of waste coming from the apparel industry amounts to 20 million tons each year. Consumers are voicing these types of environmental concerns through SNS, and NGOs are working to remedy the situation. This topic will continue to be important.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
Continued demand growth from the downstream polyester market and firming crude oil values likely to push the monoethylene glycol (MEG) spot prices in Asia on uptrend but the increased supply in China by the end of the month may limit the gain, industry sources said on Thursday. On 15 April, MEG prices registered a cumulative average gain of 9pc since the start of the month at $910-912/tonne CFR (cost and freight) China Main Port (CMP), according to ICIS data. Supply in China’s domestic market has grown tighter given low MEG inventory at the country’s main ports. Since the start of the year, inventory levels at the ports have mostly hovered below 60,000 tonnes, down by at least 30% from the average in 2014, market sources said.
Some market participants expect inventory levels to be stable-to-soft over the new few weeks, in view of increasing demand in April and May. Increased sales-to-output ratio and higher operating rates at downstream polyester plants have been fuelling the bullish market sentiment. Operating rates at polyester plants have also increased to around 80% from around 75% previously, market sources said. Production at downstream polyester fibre and yarn and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sectors typically peaks around April and May, boding well for MEG consumption, a trader said.
But demand will taper off from late May, an MEG producer said. Meanwhile, China will welcome fresh MEG supply with the start-up of Fujian Refining & Petrochemical’s 400,000 tonne/year plant this month that could exert downward pressure on domestic prices, a China-based trader said. According to some market players, MEG prices may be peaking, citing the sharp widening of the gap against raw material naphtha. The MEG-naphtha price gap is currently at above $300/tonne compared with the typical spread of around $150-200/tonne.
Given the wide profit margin, some sellers have the option to destock at lower prices to lock in profits in the current market, industry sources said. While, other market players expect firm prices of key feedstock ethylene to sustain MEG prices in the near term. In India, a 750,000 tonne/year MEG unit located at Jamnaga in Gujarat could come online in the first half of 2015. According to Industry sources, the successful operations of this plant would likely reduce India’s reliance on imported MEG.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
The European Commission has issued a draft Regulation that would introduce a restriction on the use of nonyl phenol ethoxylates (NPEs) in textile articles. The draft Regulation prohibits the placing on the market of textile articles which can reasonably be expected to be washed in water during their normal lifecycle, if their NPE content is at least 0.01% by weight (that is to say 100mg/kg). It allows exemptions for secondhand textile articles and new textile articles produced exclusively from recycled textiles.
The draft Regulation has a transition period of 60 months between the adoption of the restriction and its applicability, in order to give sufficient time to producers to adapt their production processes so that they comply with the restriction. Adoption is forecast for Q4 2015. The Commission notified the draft Regulation to the World Trade Organization on 16 April. Echa's Committees on Socio-economic Analysis (Seac) and Risk Assessment (Rac) backed the proposed restriction last year.
SOURCE: The Chemical Watch
Ghana has stepped up efforts to halt the smuggling of pirated textiles from China. The quantity of pirated cloth sold cheaply has forced several local manufacturers out of business. No Ghanaian market is complete without a wide range of colourful cloths and fabrics that tempt passers-by to part with their money. The famous art and textiles market in the capital Accra is no exception. Among the many designs on show is the famous Kente fabric popular among the Akan people. It is a silk and cotton fabric worn on special occasions. This and many other fabrics known collectively as African print are produced locally. However the textile industry in Ghana is increasingly facing competition from cheap copies smuggled in from abroad, especially from China.
John Amoah is the assistant brand protection manager at Akosombo Textiles Limited which produces African print. "We have a situation where unidentified people take the brand logo of the local manufacturers, send it outside, print it and then they smuggle it into the country," he told DW. Customers who see the label GTP or ATL think they are buying original material but in fact the textiles are fakes. A display case showing numerous examples of genuine textiles.These examples of textile design are all genuine.
Potential health risks
The influx of cheap fakes has hit local manufacturers hard and some have even been forced out of business. In response, the government has set up a taskforce to hunt down the fake textiles and remove them. The move is in line with World Trade Organization regulations but not all traders approve. Faustina Amoakwah, for example, points out that it is not only textiles that come from China. "We are in Ghana, we import a lot of things, even in parliament we have chairs from China," she told DW. "So if you are telling us not to buy 'made in China' goods, then what are you telling us?"
Fellow trader Nora Asiedu thinks local textile producers should be given easy access to credit so they can boost production and increase their exports. John Amoah says it is not just a matter of preventing the theft of local manufacturers' intellectual property, there are also health considerations. "The Ghana Standards Authority is there to protect people - but who checks which chemicals have been used for the production of such [pirated] products?" he asks. "That is why it is so important that if a company produces this type of product, that company needs to identify that product so that if somebody buys it and there is a problem, the person can take that company on."
Officials raid a market to remove fake textiles which are then burnt. Critics of the government taskforce argue that confiscating the fake products and burning them is not the answer. That prompted a local technology company mPedigree, with the support of Premium African Textiles, to develop a new system called the GoldKeys technology to help traders and consumers determine which fabrics are not genuine.
A scratchable panel on the label of a fabric reveals a 12-digit code. That code is then sent as a text message to a toll-free number. According to Stephen Badu from Premium African Textiles, there is an instant response to say if the produce is genuine or a fake. Stakeholders in the textile industry are showing interest in the system but it could still be some time before fake fabrics disappear from shops and markets throughout the country.
SOURCE: The Deutsche Welle
President Barack Obama has said that his top priority in any trade negotiation is to expand the opportunity for Americans and take leadership of the global economy. Obama’s comments came as Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch and senators Ron Wyden and Paul Ryan introduced the bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation which was also hailed by the country’s fashion industry. “It’s no secret that past trade deals haven’t always lived up to their promise, and that’s why I will only sign my name to an agreement that helps ordinary Americans get ahead. At the same time, at a moment when 95 per cent of our potential customers live outside our borders, we must make sure that we, and not countries like China, are writing the rules for the global economy,” Obama said.
The TPA bill comes as the two most ambitious trade negotiations in the nation’s history – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) – are underway to further tear down trade barriers to American goods and services. According to World Bank data, these two trade agreements together would further open markets encompassing nearly 1.3 billion customers and approximately 60 per cent of global GDP product. TPA lapsed in 2007 and is needed for the US to successfully conclude these negotiations. Secretary of State John Kerry joined Obama in congratulating the three-member panel for providing a framework that would allow the US and its global partners to complete two of the most significant trade agreements in American history, the TPP and the T-TIP that together will encompass nearly two-thirds of the global economy. “The US must remain a leader in global trade, and not run the risk of being left on the sidelines while others set the course. I urge Congress to pass TPA without delay,” Kerry said.
The US Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) has hailed the introduction of the TPA. “Trade Promotion Authority is essential for the conclusion of high-standard, 21st-century trade agreements,” says Julia K Hughes, president of USFIA. “The fashion industry applauds the introduction of TPA and urges Congress to pass the legislation as soon as possible so we can see the swift conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other key trade negotiations,” Hughes was quoted as saying by the USFIA website. The passage of TPA will allow the Obama Administration to conclude the TPP, a potentially groundbreaking agreement for fashion brands and retailers doing business in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as create ambitious trade policy for the future, such as the TTIP, a historic trade negotiation with Europe. American clothing major Gap has also applauded the TPA. “TPA is key to making sure US companies and workers get the best possible outcomes in trade agreements,” said Sonia Syngal, executive vice president of Gap’s global supply chain and product operations.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
From the several textile industries in Nigeria in the 1980s, the country, shamefully, can no longer boast of being a hub for textile industries and this is as a result of the many challenges bedevelling the sector of the Nigerian economy. This is explained in this interview granted to Naij.com by the President of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Mr. Oladele Hunsu.
What would you describe as the current challenges facing the textile industry that you would want the in-coming government of General Muhammadu Buhari to look into?
Let me congratulate Nigerians on the conduct of the last presidential election and I believe that this would be reflected in other elections we would be having in the country. For the first time in the history of this country, I could see Nigerians putting their own fate in their hands. However, I can say that nothing has changed in the textile industry. We are stagnated and some of the problems are the ones you are familiar with, most especially smuggling that has assumed a frightening dimension. Before now, we had some degrees of smuggling activities, but now we have all manner of clothing coming into the country through smuggling, unchecked. When last did you hear of men of the Customs Service seizing clothes in Nigeria? Go to Oshodi Market, Balogun Market and others; most of the materials you see there are coming from Asian countries such as China, Malaysia and others and these have further made the industry to be worse despite the intervention of the Federal Government. You are all aware, that they promised to bring in money to bail out the industry. As I speak to you now, I can say that the fund has not helped matters because there are other factors of production that have not been taken care of. For instance, you talk of electricity, what is the electricity level now in Nigeria? It is abysmally low and no country can run under this kind of electricity. There are some employers that are crying because of the cost of buying diesel to power their generating set to operate their equipment and it is uneconomical. You see a factory spending about N60 million to power their machines and this money could have gone into other factors of production. So, the textile industry is not there yet. I can say we are stagnated. We have not recorded any significant improvement in the industry. We just hope that the new administration would bring in fresh air into the industry.
What have the factories lost based on some of these problems you just talked about?
The stagnation in the industry has caused job loss and none of the employers can boast of making profit. Since most of the factories cannot cope because of importation of clothes and lack of energy or power, they have no choice but to lay off workers. Also, the problem of the insurgency is there; some of our factories in the northern part of the country have had cause to amend their shifting time to accommodate the emergency. Most workers don’t go to work in the night because of the activities of the insurgents. Besides, those that are trying to survive find it difficult to sell their goods. They say that customers from the southern part of the country no longer go to the north to buy goods. So, they have unsold stocks. I can say our members have lost their jobs and I cannot count the problems in the industry on my fingers. I want to say that it has not been rosy really.
Absence of unions and employment of casual workers have become major problems in the country. Does this apply to textile industries?
As far as I am concerned, employment of casual workers is not allowed in the textile industry. You can do your independent investigation. We have a long history of unionism in the industry and the factories know that employment of casual workers is not allowed in the industry. You are aware that we have led protest against all forms of casualisation in the industry. When a worker lost his life in Agege, Lagos last year, we mobilised our members to protest against the condition under which they were working in the factory. So, having casual workers is not allowed in the industry.
You are a top member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) by virtue of your position. Do you see a reconciliation between the warring factions of the NLC?
I want to say that we don’t have any problem in NLC; we have the capacity to resolve our challenges and that would be done soon. Every institution must pass through one challenge or the other. We would overcome the challenges and I want to tell those, who are thinking of polarizing the labour movement in the country that they can never succeed in the venture. We are still members of NLC. It is an institution and we will resolve the problem. People may say we have factions, but we are still under the NLC.
What are your expectations from the administration of Muhammadu Buhari?
I want to congratulate the administration once again, but it must hit the ground running. To be soft-hearted is something that can overwhelm someone. I am sure it has the support of every Nigerian and I think it would succeed with this. The challenges we have include those of infrastructure, power, and whoever that can get power right, all other things would follow. Also, it must re-industrialise the economy; Nigeria cannot be said to be an industrial world or industrialised economy. We used to have industries in those days, but where are they now? We used to have Leyland, Bata, Dunlop and others, where are they now? So, the government must focus on re-industrialising the economy so that we can keep unemployed youths out of the streets. Moreso, we should allow Nigerian industries to compete with their foreign counterparts by giving them the things their foreign counterparts enjoy. We would still congratulate the president-elect formally as an organisation, but I want to personally congratulate him for his consistency, because when you are consistent, it means you have something to offer to take Nigeria out of the woods. Nigerians have a collective will and we will have an opportunity to change our fortunes. The time to work and focus on re-building the country is now.
What is your union doing to ensure the textile workers are skillful to handle the equipment in the industry?
It is not actually under our purview to do that, but sometimes you wonder where our technical colleges have gone. I am aware of those days, when we had trained Nigerians in all fields of human endeavours and some of them were products of technical education. That is where we have missed it. If you want to industrialise the country and you don’t have skillful people to manage the equipment, there would be trouble. So, the government must go back to the drawing board to resuscitated technical education. In those days, before you could be employed in the factory, you must have gone through trade test from level one to three, these are the skills you would acquire. The government must go back to empower our youths instead of using okada (motorcycle) to empower them. What skill do you need to ride okada? You cannot even transfer it to anybody. Skill acquisition must continue and we must go back to technical education, we don’t need to rely on foreigners to come and take over our jobs here. We used to have courses on textiles in some of our colleges of technology like Yaba College of Technology, what has happened to these? If the technical colleges are okay and the workers are well rewarded, all of us have no business carrying degrees all about. We must de-emphasise paper qualification. If all of us are degree holders, then, degree to do what?
SOURCE: The NAIJ
The world's top finance leaders warned Friday that currency volatility, low inflation and high debt levels threaten to undermine an already uneven global economic recovery. In an official statement after two days of meetings, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 largest economies backed more easy-money policies in wealthy nations as critical accelerants for growth. "In many advanced economies, accommodative monetary policies are needed to anchor inflation expectations and support recovery," said the G-20 statement.
The G-20, which acts as the world's economic executive board, affirmed its support for central bank stimulus in Europe, Japan and the US Officials are increasingly worried that the global economy could get stuck in a long period of anemic output, given the slowdown in many of the largest emerging markets that have been key drivers of global growth. But as the US Federal Reserve contemplates when it should start raising borrowing costs for the first time in nearly a decade, the G-20 expressed concern that an easy-money exit could send shock waves through markets across the globe. "In an environment of diverging monetary policy settings and rising financial-market volatility, policy settings should be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated to minimize negative spillovers," the group said.
SOURCE: The Australian Business Review
