Downstream textile industries need to be developed so that Zambia can benefit from its eligibility for continued tariff preferences under the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Ndola Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has said.

Speaking in an interview yesterday, NCC chairman Ramesh Patel said the textile industry needed a lot of support to grow.

He said Government should also help offset manufacturers' export freight costs from Zambia to ports of exit which were all far away.

He said Government could help meet export costs or completely eliminate them as they were the main hindrance where export of goods was concerned.

He said the absence of a coast line greatly worked against Zambia's favour.

And Mr Patel said apart from developing it, the local textile industry also needed protection.

Mr Patel cited Nigeria whose government officials recently decided to ban all textile and food imports including pork, pork products, mutton, apples, flowers and some other items.

He said the action had been taken to protect Nigerian producers from external competition.

Mr Patel said Zambia could emulate this action if her textile industry was to develop.

He said there were provisions in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules which allowed Nigeria and any other country to take such an action for a period of fiveyears.