Tavola, Downer to discuss garment trade
Fiji Times, Fiji
THE garment trade agreement with Australia will be one of the main points of discussions between Foreign Affairs Minister Kaliopate Tavola and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer during a meeting in Canberra soon.
Foreign Affairs chief executive Isikeli Mataitoga was reacting to comments made by the Fiji Garment, Clothing and Textile Association president Ramesh Solanki for the Government to act promptly on lapses in a trade agreement with Australia to save jobs here.
We are aware of problems faced by the garment industry and we had made a submission earlier this year to those in Australia and we are dealing with the matter diplomatically but there are always ways that could be used by others to try and jeopardise the situation, he said.
On Friday, a UN report stated that Fijis garment industry was bound to suffer more in the future and negotiations between Australia and China would have a severe effect on Fijis garment industry.
It said that Fijis collapsing textile and clothing industry recorded its worst year in a decade during 2005, which saw 6000 workers losing their jobs.
The competition from bigger countries the report said, pushed smaller countries like Fiji to the brink of collapse.
Mr Solanki said this was perfectly correct about the local industry and the Government had to act now.
The stakeholders of the industry has already approached the Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to improve access to New Zealand and Australia through SPARTECA, Mr Solanki said.
We have not heard anything from the Government and we did not go forward over the past weeks because of the busy election period. But now that everything is over, we plan to visit the PM next week to ask for an update, Mr Solanki said.
Mr Solanki said the industry was one of the major employment providers in Fiji.
A lot of school leavers and dropouts enter the garment industry because it is the kind of job already available for them as other types of employment opportunities are quite difficult to get today.
The Government cant just sit back and wait for things to happen. We need to act now before the remaining 9000 families are affected, Mr Solanki said.
The report also revealed that increasing price competition, closures of factories, job losses and deterioration of workers conditions have been reported in countries that lost export orders as well as in countries that managed to keep their export volume.
