SA+rails+against+tsunami+of+Chinese+goods,+Business+Day



Business Day, Johannesburg, 03 January 2006**

=**SA rails against ’tsunami’ of Chinese goods**=


 * John Chiahemen**


 * Reuters**

THE Confederation of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) used a rally marking its 20th anniversary last month to promote a “buy local” campaign.

But as about 20000 unionists marched and chanted “Proudly South African” slogans in a Durban stadium, word went round that the bright red T-shirts each wore were made in China.

Thousands of members of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), which is spearheading a campaign against a flood of cheap Chinese textile imports, removed the shirts and hurled them into a pile in the middle of the stadium.

“People’s reaction to those T-shirts is a clear indication that they’ve had enough of these cheap products from abroad,” Sactwu president John Zikhali said later.

“South African retailers need to buy products that are made here because we cannot afford to lose any more jobs.”

From SA to Lesotho, Zambia to Nigeria, anger is mounting over what one union leader called “a tsunami of cheap Chinese goods” that many say is choking off local industries and wiping out jobs.

Leonard Hikaumba, president of the Zambian Congress of Trade Unions, bemoans what he calls the dumping of cheap textiles and electronics goods by Chinese exporters.

“The beneficiaries of these are the exporters, not us,” he says.

In no sector is this more critical than in textiles, one of the first industries that took root when many sub-Saharan African countries became independent in the 1960s.

The Textile, Garments and Tailoring Senior Staff Association of Nigeria estimates that about 350000 jobs have been lost directly as a result of Chinese competition and 1,5-million indirectly after more than 50 textile industries were forced to shut down over the past five years.

“Most warehouses in Lagos have been converted into churches,” union secretarygeneral Issah Aremu says.

The South African textile union estimates 800 manufacturing units and 60000 jobs have disappeared in the country since 2001 as a result of what it calls unfair competition from China.

“It’s not just about SA, the whole continent is concerned, the whole world is beginning to suffer,” says Zikhali.

China’s surging economy and manufacturing muscle have confounded even economic superpowers such as the US, which has found no easy barrier against a flood of Chinese textiles since World Trade Organisation (WTO) quotas on Chinese imports lapsed earlier this year.

Pretoria has imposed anti-dumping duties on a number of Chinese products such as face- cloths, door locks and handles, and blankets.

But some analysts call these token measures, reflecting a possible desire by SA not to antagonise the giant economy that is growing in leaps and bounds.

Chinese diplomats in Africa are quick to note that their country is becoming a major source of direct foreign investment for the continent. Analysts say these are increasingly to extract minerals to fuel China’s awesome growth.

In 2004, China exported goods to Africa worth a total of $13,82bn, against imports from Africa of $15,65bn, but these figures mask a fundamental imbalance, experts say.

African countries have for decades faced a dilemma of how to deal with China on trade issues because of Beijing’s solidarity with Africa in its fight against colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s and support of liberation movements in southern Africa.

China’s “friendship” with African countries has led to an influx of its citizens who now run everything from grocery stores and building materials shops to restaurants in even remote provincial towns of the continent.

In Lesotho, dependent on textiles for 90% of export earnings, the garment industry collapsed dramatically after the end of WTO restrictions on Chinese exports killed off Lesotho’s US orders.

Chinese and Taiwanese investors set up factories there in 1999 to take advantage of the US’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, which gave textile exports from qualified African countries duty-free access to American markets.

They closed shop and walked away when the US orders dried up, leaving thousands of workers, mostly women, jobless.

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/economy.aspx?ID=BD4A133332