Liberalisation and textiles
Looming crisis: the threat of industrial trade liberalisation negotiations at the WTO on India's textile and leather industries
Trade liberalisation will threaten India's textile and leather industries
Authors:
; ActionAid
Publisher:
ActionAid International, 2005
This briefing paper argues that these WTO negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) could threaten the jobs of thousands of workers in infant industries and traditional sectors of employment in developing countries, wiping out livelihoods for many poor and vulnerable communities.
With a particular focus on India the brief finds that:
- while trade liberalisation policies in India over the past 15 years have brought some success to India’s IT and services sectors, and to overall economic growth, traditional sectors of mass employment, such as textiles and leather, have struggled to survive and economic inequality has increased
- cotton handloom weavers are struggling as yarn prices increase
- shoe workers are losing their jobs as Chinese imports grow
- garment workers are suffering job insecurity and poor labour conditions.
ActionAid recommends that:
- developed and developing countries halt the current NAMA negotiations and reject the current NAMA negotiating text of July 2004
- a full, independent assessment of the potential development and environmental impacts of the NAMA negotiations is carried out
- WTO members should bring forward a new pro-poor negotiating text that puts the interests of all developing countries at its core.
[adapted from author]
