- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (left), and Victor Baez Mosqueira, Secretary General of the Inter-American unit of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions on their recent visit to the country.
Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer
JAMAICA'S GARMENT sector is being put on notice that it is likely to enter another phase of uncertainty, as it faces intensified labour market competition at year end.
That's when the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is scheduled to come to an end.
Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) states have, for the past two decades, enjoyed favourable access to the United States market for their textile products, under the ambit of the MFA. With the phase-out of the MFA, however, local producers will be hard-pressed to retain their market share, a fact acknowledged by Ambassador Peter King, chairman of the Caribbean Textile and Apparel Institute.
This development has attracted the attention of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF), which is worried that countries with poor labour market conditions, such as China, will gobble up the industry. This, according to Neil Kearney, general secretary of the ITGLWF, is bad news for workers in other countries, like Jamaica, which respect workers' rights.
CAPTURING THE MARKET
"In some countries where garment quotas are being phased out, like the USA, China is already taking between 60 and 70 per cent of the market. If we look at Japan, where there was never any quota, the Chinese already have about 90 per cent of the market.
"This is going to cause enormous disruptions in every part of the world. Bangladesh currently has about 1.8 million workers in the sector. It's reckoned that next year they will lose a million of those jobs," he told The Sunday Gleaner while on a recent visit to Jamaica.
That situation could be replicated here in Jamaica, he said, referring to the less than favourable conditions under which textile workers labour in nearby Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
"If you look at CARICOM, you have two countries Jamaica, where the International labour standards are generally applied, and Haiti where manufacturers respect no law; don't even pay the minimum wage of US$1.74 per day. So you get that total distortion in the labour market where those countries which respect their own laws and international standards are trampled on by those who don't," he said.
The answer, according to Mr. Kearney, is "for trade to be linked to international labour standards, so that a country or company that doesn't respect these laws and international standards is prevented from having a part in the international trading system."
This was one of the issues pushed by Mr. Kearney and other visiting trade unionists when they met with Government officials, garment producers and local trade unionists during their visit. The call for adherence to the International Labour Organisation's core labour standards in international trade has long been a rallying cry of trade unionists.
It's a position that Lambert Brown, first vice-president of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), who met with his visiting colleagues, subscribes to.
"Certainly one of the things happening in the world is that the search for the cheapest labour market results in the workers suffering the most," he observed.
But the problem does not stop with the workers, according to Mr. Brown, who pointed out that as they lose their jobs these workers lose their purchasing power as consumers, thereby affecting the survival of other businesses.
"This is undermining the fundamental rights that workers have gained over time. These are rights that the ILO established through conventions. We should therefore avoid the race to the bottom. The best way to do this is to build a global movement that recognises labour rights and minimum standards across international borders," he said.
Ambassador Peter King, one Jamaica's foremost authorities on the textile trade, shares the concern of the trade unionists about the possible impact of the phase out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement.
"We've always looked forward with some degree of concern at the end of this facility because that's the arrangement that permits countries like ours to compete. We are now concerned about what an avalanche of Chinese exports will do to us," he said.
In 2003, for the first time since 1997, apparel exports from Jamaica recorded growth of three per cent, taking total exports to US$220 million, an improvement that has continued into the first six months of 2004, according to Ambassador King.
GOOD NEWS
This development represents good news for a sector that, at its peak in the late 1980s, was employing 40,000 people and earning US$500 million. Today, employment has shrunk to 10,000, earning just under half of what it once did. Nevertheless, Ambassador King is quick to point out that the textile sector remains the largest foreign exchange earner among local manufacturing enterprises. Even in the face of the new threat, however, the trade expert remains optimistic about prospects for Jamaica's apparel exports.
"We are discussing with some of the leading brands Gap, Levis and Tommy Hilfiger asking them not to suddenly drop their traditional markets, but to phase in the new arrangement. Our main problem is going to be the avalanche of goods flowing out of China. We will have to concentrate on high-end high cost products. We can't compete with China's cheap products," he said.
