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Over half a million textile workers have lost their jobs since the reforms of the federal government started about seven years ago, the director general of the Nigerian Textile, Garment and Tailoring Employers' Association, Mr. Jaiyeola Paul Olarewaju has disclosed.Mr. Jaiyeola told Daily Trust after a meeting of the governing council of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers' Association (NTMA) in Kaduna at the weekend that before the reforms, there were over 50 textile mills in Lagos employing over a million workers ,but today there are less...

Namibian workers believe that government should not succumb to the pressure from Ramatex to buy the troubled company.Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) Evilastus Kaaronda told New Era yesterday that the general feeling expressed by the workers is that "Government has given too much already to the Malaysian company and now should stand its ground during the negotiations".The Namibian government and the City of Windhoek have provided Ramatex enormous financial benefits such as subsidised water and electricity...

The 2006 Comprehensive Report on US Trade and Investment Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been submitted to the US congress. The report compiled by the US Trade Representative notes that two-way trade between the US and sub-Saharan African countries has increased 115% since AGOA's launch in 2000.It also describes the wide array of US programs that are assisting African countries to bolster economic growth and development through trade. "AGOA helps Africans use the power...

"The time is now for economic development in Africa," and it is precisely that point that will be emphasized at the upcoming fifth annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Trade Forum, says Lloyd O. Pierson, assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development. In a May 24 interview with the Washington File, Pierson said the June 6-7 forum will be held in Washington in 2006 with the theme of "The Private Sector and Trade: Powering Africa's Growth.""I think you will not see any type of large announcement...

The Prime Minister's Office and the Ramatex Textile Factory have issued a joint statement, but with contradictory signals about the future of the factory's operations in Namibia.On the one hand, the parties said they were "currently engaged in serious discussions on the project" with a view to finding an "amicable solution" and "settlement", while on the other not denying that the company's continued presence in the country depended on these factors."Ramatex intends to remain within the framework of the existing arrangements," said the...

Maseru - The desperate nation of Lesotho is pinning high hopes on Irish rock star Bono to rescue its embattled clothing and textile industry, the fraying mainstay of the economy.Bono, the front man for U2 and crusader for African development, visited Lesotho this week on a six-nation tour of Africa to put the international spotlight on the continent's problems.He met King Letsie III, Queen Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso, and the minister of trade and industries, co-operatives and marketing, Mpho Malie, to discuss how to persuade foreigners to...

Two-way trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa increased 115 percent since the launch in 2000 of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), according to a report submitted to the United States Congress May 18. (Download the report here.The annual report, called the 2006 Comprehensive Report on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, describes the wide array of U.S. programs that are assisting African countries to bolster economic growth and...

Tanzania has recorded a modest increase in its volume of exports to the United States under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) over the past year but more needs to be done for the country to benefit fully from the facility.Tanzania's Minister for Industry, Trade and Marketing, Nazir Karamagi, said while the US, through its Dar es Salaam embassy, has been assisting local entrepreneurs to understand the US market and develop relationships that are critical for market entry, the government has also been working with the private sector to...

Namibia's government will have to cough up in the region of half a billion Namibian dollars to buy the Ramatex Textile Factory if it wants to keep the more than 6 000 workers from losing their jobs.It will have to make this decision within the next week.This is what the Executive Director of the Ramatex Berhad group, Albert Lim Poh Boon, put to Prime Minister Nahas Angula last week.After only four years in the country, the factory plans to shut up shop soon.What Ramatex management has shrugged off as rumours in recent months, has now been...

Washington has invited African trade and finance ministers for talks on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) - the US partial free trade regime for imports from Africa.This will be the fifth round of the Agoa Forum, which aims to remove stumbling blocks that prevent African countries gaining greater access to US markets.Discussions will also look into whether or not the initiative has succeeded in spurring entrepreneurial activity in African countries, and improving their investment climates.The US said it was also keen to discuss...

The fifth African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum will be held in Washington June 6-7, and will focus on the private sector and helping eligible African nations develop real growth in gross domestic product through trade expansion into U.S. markets, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer announced May 11.Frazer told journalists at a May 11 briefing that more than 35 African trade and finance ministers will attend the AGOA forum, as will hundreds of participants of the private sector and civil society.She...

U.S. Activists for trade justice dubbed the week of April 16 as the week of action. By the end of the week, thanks to key events revealing an unraveling of the Bush administration's free trade agenda, trade activists campaigning for a more just global trade system celebrated victory.Globally, the U.S. has been aggressively parading a model of free trade touted to catalyze development and lift countries out of poverty. A closer look at the details of particular free trade agreements (FTAs) reveals this assertion to be ridiculous. Not unlike...

Kenya has asked China to withdraw its objection for extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).Kituyi said China had threatened to block the trade arrangement through the World Trade Organisation citing the trade arrangement sponsored by the US was not compatible with WTO rules.Kituyi who held talks with visiting Chinese Commerce Minister, Bo Xilai, said Africa wants China to drop its objection as away of helping the continent grow its economies. Exports of textile and apparel from Africa dominate trade under the Agoa...

The strong performance of the Levi clothing factory in Cape Town, one of only five Levi-owned factories left in the world, over the past few years shows that the local clothing industry can be profitable while maintaining global best practice operationally.Although tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in South Africa's clothing and textiles industry in the past three years as factories have closed their doors in the face of stiff competition from China and elsewhere in Asia, the Levi factory at Epping has gone from strength to strength,...

Several business and nongovernmental organisations lay the blame for what some describe as a halt in free-trade talks between Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the US at the door of the world’s largest economy. The US’s approach to the talks has been seen as inflexible by it asking Sacu members SA, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland to sign up to the “template” that the US applies in free-trade talks with other countries or blocs, rather than engaging in real negotiation. US negotiators’ hands are somewhat tied by...

A new coffee-processing company, House of Uganda Coffee Ltd., has won a 49-year lease to use part of the former Coffee Marketing Board premises at Bugolobi. Uganda Property Holdings Ltd, the custodian of most government properties, granted the lease for which Uganda Coffee will pay an annual rental fee of Shs56m. The company will share the premises with Apparels Tri-Star, the firm that produces textiles for the United States market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Agoa. With the Shs6 billion it plans to invest in processing...

A drop in Kenya's textile exports to the United States contributed to a large trade imbalance between the two countries last year.New figures show that the entry of Asian countries into the competition for the US textile market has already cut gains made by the Kenya and the US in the last two years to narrow the trade deficit. with statistics from the US commerce department.The data from the US Commerce department shows that Kenya's textile and apparel sales to the US under the preferential terms of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act...

This year presents a number of opportunities on the global trade front for the US and the countries of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu).First, there is the Doha development round, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to liberalise world trade and stimulate economic growth and development.As a leader of the developing world, South Africa has an important role to play in pushing these World Trade Organisation negotiations to an ambitious outcome. We must work together to ensure that this opportunity to improve the global economy and...

The United States hopes to agree a road-map with southern Africa on reaching a trade pact this week but will not budge on key issues that have previously stalled talks, a top official said on Monday.Deputy US trade representative Karan Bhatia said he hoped talks on Tuesday with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) - which comprises South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho - would yield a plan for boosting trade.No compromiseBut he said the US would not compromise on issues like intellectual property, government procurement...

The US is ready to help Kenya reduce the cost of production, which makes the country's exports unable to compete in the international markets.Deputy US Trade Representative, Karan Bhatia, said in Nairobi that the cost of production in Kenya is making the country's products unable to compete with those from China in the US market.Bhatia, who was in Nairobi for the meeting of African Union Trade Ministers, also said Kenya should diversify its exports to the US."The US has increased its aid dedicated to boosting trade in Africa. It should make...

All across Africa, textile producers and exporters are reeling from the impact of new trade rules that took effect in January 2005. The rules, negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO), opened up to market forces a sector that had been protected for more than 30 years. It did so by ending a quota system in industrial nations which as a side effect had provided a ready market for textiles and apparel from poor African and other developing countries.The phasing out of the old system has already cost Africa more than 250,000 jobs over...

Ambassador Bhatia: First, on behalf of the United States, I would like to convey our deepest condolences to the government and people of Kenya on the recent air crash tragedy. Our thoughts are with the families of those who were affected.I want to thank our co-hosts -- African Union Trade Commissioner Tankeu and Kenyan Trade and Industry Minister Kituyi -- for inviting the United States to participate in this ministerial meeting. Let me convey warm greetings from President Bush and from Ambassador Portman, who very much wanted to be here...

A USAID-funded programme working on the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) VEGA Ethiopia said that the country's export to the US under the initiative is steadily increasing.In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald yesterday, Programme Chief of Staff Addis Alemayehu said that Ethiopia exported items worth of 700,000 dollars in 2001 growing to 1.7 million in 2003. In 2004 and 2005 the country exported goods worth of 3.3 and 3.6 million USD respectively.Currently, Ethiopia ranks 19th among the 37 AGOA eligible countries in terms...

Fears are intensifying among workers that Namibia's biggest textile manufacturer, Ramatex Textile Factory, plans to scale down operations dramatically, if not shut down its Windhoek operations completely.Workers are on tenterhooks as reports swirl that as many as 3 000 of them could face retrenchment and that equipment from the factory buildings are being packed into containers and shipped out of the country.Prime Minister Nahas Angula told The Namibian on Wednesday that the situation was "worrying", but that the factory had to be given the...

Daimler Chrysler SA, which yesterday reported record revenues of R27,5bn for last year, will become the second car maker in SA to export to the US if it qualifies for benefits under that country’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).US customs authorities will make a ruling in the next three or four weeks on whether local content in the Mercedes Benz C-Class that the car maker is looking to sell in the US is sufficient under Agoa criteria to qualify for lower import duties.This did not necessarily mean that the car maker would...

Tanzanian business investors have been advised to put some efforts to explore the US-sponsored African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) markets like other investors from Kenya and Uganda.The Chairman of East Africa Business Council (EABC), Mr. Anorld Kileo on March 13 said unlike its counterparts Kenya and Uganda, Tanzania was lacking behind in selling its products in AGOA markets despite being given additional time. He was addressing the Regional Meeting on Investment Promotion held at the Arusha International Conference Centre.He noted...

The garment industry in the country has become one of the most growing industries. Many business people are engaged in the industry and have become successful. Despite its huge potential and strategic significance, the sector is still at an embryonic stage of development. That is, the performance of the sector is very low.Ato Elias Meshesha, general manager of Spectrum Garment Industry, who has worked in the garment industry for the past thirty years and is an expert on the subject, said that garment industries in their country are still in...

Southern Textiles, a Durban-based company that manufactures for the clothing, shoe, luggage and upholstery industries, has lost about 40 percent of its revenue to Chinese imports, but has still managed to remain successful because of its flexibility."The clothing industry has been the worst hit but luggage has been doing fine and upholstery has done very well," Robert Patchappen, the director, said yesterday.The trimming manufacturing company, which operates on a 24-hour basis and has a staff of 120, has been struggling against Chinese...

Uganda has moved a step ahead in beating the September 2007 expiry of third party fabric sourcing under the AGOA initiative by clinching a deal with an American investor to set up a spinning, weaving and dying mill.The new $20m (about sh36b) investment is a joint venture between Apparels Tri-Star and ISIS Pacific Capital Inc, a New York-based textile and garment company.The proposed mill will be set up within the existing Tri-Star premises at Bugolobi in Kampala within six months, James Langford, the Pacific Capital president, said last...

ISIS Pacific Capital, a US-based company is set to invest $20m (about Shs36.2b) in Uganda's apparels sector.Meeting President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at State House, Nakasero on March 9, the company's Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Langford said the firm plans to inject the money in Uganda to boost the country's textile sector.According to the press statement, Langford said ISIS Pacific Capital was making preparations to make a joint venture in the textile industry with Uganda's Apparels Tristar Ltd.The textile expert said the funds would...

Kenyan entrepreneurs were yesterday petitioned to increase exports to the United States market that is valued at Sh4 billion annually.Matanda Wabuyele, the Export Promotions Council chief executive, also called for diversification of the range of Kenyan exports to value added components."The challenge exporters face is not just increasing volume of exports to US, but also diversifying the range of exports by ensuring there was more value adding," he said. Wabuyele made the remarks during a workshop on doing business with US at a Nairobi...

The clothing industry is perilously close to minimum critical mass and if the dramatic surge in undervalued imports is left unchecked, could decline to the point where the sector is no longer of any interest to global sourcing companies.This is the view of Jack Kipling, the chairman of the Export Council for the Clothing Industry, who said the sector could also decline to the point where it was unable to support the local textile and components suppliers, such as zip and thread manufacturers."The only way to avoid this," he said, "is if...

Trade experts say the United States is demanding far deeper market access than South Africa is willing to give, particularly in the area of services that are covered by regulatory protection rather than tariffs.South African business appears to be waking up late to the fact that the country may be walking away from a free trade deal with the US.“It makes far more sense for South Africa to negotiate a free trade agreement with a high-wage country like the US than a low-wage country. The benefits to our economy would be huge,” says Philip...

Rosebud Limited, a Ugandan company, delivered its first shipment of 500,000 roses to the United States early in February, in time for the floral industry's busy season, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced February 22."This is a perfect example of the U.S. commitment to Africa," said Lloyd Pierson, assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau for Africa, in a recent USAID press release. "Through our expertise, USAID is building partnerships to create sustainability and drive economic growth. This is a remarkable step...

A Delegation from the trade and industry department is in the US this week on a mission to save the stalled trade talks between the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the US.Local trade experts said yesterday that the mission came amid growing signs that the US may put the talks on the back burner if they were not concluded soon.The delegation, led by the department's acting director-general, Tshediso Matona, is in the US to meet that country's trade officials on the state of the bilateral talks between the US and Sacu, which...

The earnings of Ethiopia from AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, have been growing steadily, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.Information and Public Relations Head with the ministry,Hailu Abebe, said when the preferential access to the US market was extended to Ethiopia in 2001, the country got 822,000 USD only .The amount reached four million USD in 2004 and is even better in 2005,even if the sales report for the year is not yet ready.Despite sales of apparel, wooden sculptures, handicrafts works, businessmen...

Lesotho’s recent announcement to cut company tax on income derived from exports is a considered move to preserve the country's vital apparel industry. Indeed, the cut in tax to zero for income earned from exports outside of the Southern African Customs Union represents a purposeful step to support the successes of an apparel industry dedicated to exports and creating jobs in a country desperate for employment.Globalisation presents opportunities for developing countries -- but harnessing these requires a different kind of partnership...

Carmen Martinez (United States ambassador to Zambia) said that Zambia is now open for business since the provision of a conducive atmosphere for private sector growth by the government.Meanwhile the Zambia State Insurance Corporation (ZSIC) has provided US$1 million to Freshpikt, a fruit and vegetable canning factory that has opened in Lusaka to process canned beans, pineapples, tomatoes, guava, tomato paste and glucose, among other products.Ms Martinez said in Lusaka yesterday during the launch of Freshpikt, that the many activities in the...

Six years since the inception of the African Growth and Opportunities Act, Uganda's performance has been least impressive in East Africa.The United States-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade data authored by the US Trade Commission puts Uganda last after Kenya and Tanzania in last year's performance.Uganda made total earnings from exports to the US worth $25.8m in 2005, down from $34.8m in 2003. Tanzania's earnings grew from $24m (2003) to $34m(2005) and Kenya from $249m to $348m respectively.The US attributes the poor performance of Uganda and other...

In a bid to enhance Uganda's performance in the African Growth Opportunity Act, a website has been launched to provide information about the country's textile potential.The website has been launched by the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and contains details of the textile industry.It is intended to provide information of industry players, cotton production, jobs and other related information.She was seeing off six companies on February 13 that are to represent Uganda at a textiles exhibition in the US. Southern Range Nyanza, Apparel...

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman this week held open the possibility that the U.S. would reconsider continuing formal negotiations with members of the Southern African Customs Union over those countries' failure to agree to the scope of a deal."We don't want to walk away by any means if there's interest," Portman told reporters following a Feb. 7 speech on African trade issues. "We will continue to be there to engage but we have to keep our standards up high." Portman said the U.S. is continuing to push for an agreement that includes...

Uganda's Government has intensified efforts to revive cotton spinning mills in order to beat a 2007 African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) deadline that prohibits beneficiary countries from using imported raw materials for their US-bound exports, writes Mary Karugaba.Under the current arrangement, countries can import textiles and stitch the apparel together for export like Uganda has done for the last four years.Cankwo Okulo, the principal industrial officer in the trade ministry, said Uganda had been importing some raw materials like...

Lesotho Finance Minister Timothy Thahane yesterday announced a zero tax rate on certain of its clothing exporters in a move intended to diversify the country’s export range.Thahane’s statement was in response to a number of investors who opted for SA’s lower general company tax rate, instead of that of Lesotho.“To put an end to firms taking advantage of the lower tax rate in SA and to further improve (Lesotho’s) competitiveness, Lesotho is reducing the general company tax rate from 35% to 25% effective from April 1,” the minister...

Concerned that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a temporary trade arrangement, there is feeling that Namibia should rather further diversify its export markets and move away from any AGOA dependency.AGOA, which is an arrangement initiated by the United States of America to benefit Sub-Saharan African countries, encourages trade and investments between the US and Africa through reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers.The Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies...

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki's generally upbeat, but short on concrete detail, state of the nation address to parliament on Friday has been broadly welcomed by the beleaguered clothing and textile industry, which is likely to be the first to benefit directly from the government's more proactive approach to growth.Giving broad details of the accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa (Asgisa), Mbeki said that nine specific sectors - business process outsourcing, tourism, chemicals, biofuels, metals and metallurgy, wood...

As Ugandan flower exporters continue to explore alternative markets for their cut flowers, the exporters have penetrated the US market for the first time. On Tuesday, the first consignment of over 500,000 hydroponics roses from Rosebud Ltd left for the US aboard a KLM flight. The shipment was witnessed at Entebbe International Airport by the Executive Director Uganda Flower Exporters Association (UFEA), Mr Keith Henderson, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Agricultural Advisor, Mr James Dunn, Agricultural...