Ghanaian textile industry seeks review of import laws

29 May '12

2 min read

The Ghanaian Government has been called upon by the local textile industry stakeholders to review and amend existing laws on import of textiles from foreign countries.

The call was given by Mrs. Edwina Assan, President of Spinnet during a training workshop held under the aegis of Business for Advocacy (BUSAC) for textile dealers in Accra.

She said looking at the level of country's adherence to the World Trade Organization agreements, it is necessary to consider the impact that some of these agreements lay on the domestic industries.

According to Mrs. Assan, large-scale import of textiles under the Government's trade liberalisation policy has rendered domestic textile and garment industry uncompetitive, as the imported goods happen to be much cheaper than domestically produced textiles and garments.

The Government's policy has badly hit the domestic textile producers as their markets have been eroded, which in turn has substantially reduced their market share.

This not only has caused the domestic producers to suffer huge losses in revenues, but has also resulted in large-scale redundancy in textile and other allied value chain industries, she added.

In order to avert this, the Government should develop a positive investment environment and afford a level playing field to domestic textile and garment industry players, so as to boost the sector's competitiveness.

This automatically would lead to generation of newer job opportunities, and enhance the living standards of those engaged in the industry, Mrs. Assan said.

Spinnet is an association body of enterprises dealing in textiles, clothing, interior decor and jewellery.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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