Textile workers in this Andean country are up in arms against the import of used clothing from overseas markets, mainly the US, by saying that these cheap imports are leading to job losses within the textile and garment industry.
The textile workers organized a protest march in support of the same. But at the same time, the thousands of used clothing traders are also protesting against the ban of the government on imports of these garments.
The government has been trying to get the ban enforced since the last few years, but has met with limited success, due to the opposition from the thousands of traders involved in the trade of used apparels.
According to the Bolivian Foreign Commerce Institute, the sale of used clothing has cost the country nearly 100,000 textile jobs in the last few years. Government sources say that the country cannot afford to lose more textile jobs.
The government though is very firm on enforcing the ban this time and this was announced in no uncertain terms by the Minister of Development, Ms Patricia Ballivian, who said that no leeway will be granted with used-clothing vendors.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India