It's not just U.S. and European clothing producers who are feeling the heat from China, now that quotas have been lifted on world apparel trade.
Clothing makers in Africa also are shedding jobs and closing their doors, unable to compete with China's low-cost labor, low-cost fabric and high-volume production of shirts, trousers and other garments.
Strategies for Africa to compete in apparel will be the theme of the annual AfriCANdo conference, the U.S.-Africa trade and investment forum set for June 15-18 at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Miami.
The meeting comes as many African nations have been relying on clothing exports as a pillar of their economic growth. The countries had been boosting apparel sales to the U.S. market under Washington's 5-year-old trade preference program known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA. The program lets select African products, including clothes, enter the United States without duties or quotas.
But Africa now has lost some of that edge to China, since the World Trade Organization lifted quotas on apparel trade Jan. 1. Thousands of garment jobs in countries such as Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland are in peril, according to conference organizers at the Washington, D.C-based Foundation for Democracy in Africa
"It's very scary," said Anthony Okonmah, executive director of the foundation's Miami office, of potential job losses in Africa that will disproportionately affect women, the bulk of workers in garment factories.
One option to stem Africa's job losses: slap temporary limits on how much China can increase apparel sales to the United States and other major markets -- safeguards permitted under world trade rules.
"At least that will give African nations some breathing room for a few years," suggested Okonmah. "And it's in the best interest of the United States, because it helps domestic U.S. apparel producers too."
The conference in Miami will feature garment executives as well as trade officials from African nations. Many fear a blow to Africa's garment industry could set back efforts to deepen democracy on the populous continent.
Miami has been host to the annual AfriCANdo conference since 1998 as part of a push to become the U.S. gateway for business with Africa, much as it already is with Latin America and the Caribbean.
by Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer
