Textile and Home Linen Council discusses export challenges
Egypt, Economics, 10/16/2004

The Egyptian government is keen on cooperating with the manufacturers and exporters of textiles, linen and ready-made clothes to help them face the challenges and negative impact to be posed by the abolition of the export quota regime by the end of the year, said Chairman of Foreign Trade Sector Sayed Abul Qumsan. "These challenges will likely materialize with the ending of export quotas to the US market under the terms of the World Trade Organization (WTO)," he said.

Another uphill challenge will be posed by the full implementation of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) as of January 2005. Egypt exported $ 206 million worth of textile and clothes to the US in 2003 and $ 197 million worth of them during the period from January to April 2004, according to U.S figures. The Egyptian programme for modernizing industry takes into account the ferocious competition to be posed by China and India, added the official. The Council for Textiles and Home Linen's chairman Mohammad Farid Khamis said that the customs duties on the commodities exchanged among the Arab states will be down to zero by January 2005, warning that this would have a negative impact on Egyptian exporting companies.

Mohsen El Gilani, Board Chairman of the Holding Company for Cotton, Spinning, and Weaving and Clothes, said last year's crisis in which factories suffered due to a shortage in home- grown cotton supplies will not recur this year. The new season will see a marked increase in cotton supplies after increasing the area cultivated with cotton to 720,000 feddans, he said.

The poor countries which are living off this kind of exports as a major source of foreign earnings, complain that the end of the WTO's Agreement on Textiles, and Clothing (ACT), which guarantees them a share of rich nations' markets, might undermine many of their companies.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian-Turkish discussion on textile cooperation   (9/15/2004)
  $ 150 million in projected increase of Egypt's exports to Canada   (8/10/2004)
  Government to privatize 66 companies in 2004   (5/18/2004)

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