Euro-Mediterranean needs 'better strategy' to face Chinese textile products

Moroccan Industry Minister Salaheddine Mezouar called on Tuesday euro-Mediterranean countries for adopting a "better strategy" to face the invasion of Chinese textile products.

Mezouar, who was speaking to the French television TV5, said "the textile sector was, for us, the first true test of euro-Mediterranean holding-together," adding that this region should hold like a "block" because "no country can resist, alone, the Chinese power."

He said not all Mediterranean countries are concerned with the textile problem, but only eight to ten countries in the region. These countries, he said, "should form a block, taking into account they possess the needed assets to succeed in this enterprise."

The minister recalled that the EU gives more importance to the countries of the east to the detriment of the countries of the south of the Mediterranean, deploring that "in ten years, the EU has, in fact, only maintained its southern partnerships."

Prior to this show, TV5 featured a documentary that highlights the crisis the Moroccan textile sector undergoes because of the Chinese huge inflow of products, explaining that this "invasion" has caused many lock-outs and lay-offs.