Latest News
24 Apr 12
The EU and US gave no indication of any timing for the withdrawal of penal EU import duties or of the US total ban on Burmese products when announcing the first tentative loosening of sanctions against Burma in mid April. And even those first steps were attacked by Burmese opposition groups.
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18 Apr 12
Europeans and Americans have attacked an increasing range of anti import restrictions in Brazil and Argentina, to which the countries concerned have subsequently added, while Egypt has now added new barriers to garment and textile imports.
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18 Apr 12
In 2012 the US wants to see a conclusion in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which currently envisage duty free trading between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, and may possibly include Canada, Japan and Mexico as well. The timetable seems unrealistic, given America's recent history with trade agreements
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18 Apr 12
The US/Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) was implemented on March 15. The US/Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) was implemented on March 15.
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18 Apr 12
The US Administration virtually admitted on March 26 there is no likelihood the country's s third party fabric provision to AGOA beneficiaries will be renewed in time for importers to continue placing orders that can be justified only if the provision remain in place. The provision expires on September 30 this year.
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18 Apr 12
High and upper-middle income countries should be taken off the EU's generalised trade preferences (GSP) list, so that more can be done to help developing countries most in need, said Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in a March 2 vote on plans to update the scheme. At the same time, MEPs, possibly unaware of what they were doing, singled out India in a bid to stiffened safeguards against cheap textile and garment imports.
MEPs backed a European Commission plan to update the GSP scheme to reflect recent shifts in world trade patterns, by removing preferences for EU imports from countries on the World Bank's high or upper middle per capita income list, which includes Russia, Brazil and the Gulf states – but no major garment exporter.
But MEPs also amended the proposals to stiffen safeguards for EU textile and clothing industries against very low-cost imports from third countries. GSP preferences for these products would be removed if EU imports grew by 12.5% in a year (down from the Commission's proposal of 15%), or if imports of specific products exceed 6% of total EU imports (down from the Commission proposal of 8%). This proposal would probably take GSP concessions away only from India (China gets none for garments, and concessions enjoyed by Turkey and Bangladesh do not flow from the GSP system). No MEP appeared to understand the political consequences of their amendment.
The current GSP scheme has been in effect since 2009 and expires at the end of 2013, so the new regulation has to be in place by 1 January 2014 at latest. The vote merely starts a negotiating process with the European Council of Ministers and the European Commission, which is likely to take several months at least and is unlikely to be followed through.
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18 Apr 12
The likelihood of a free trade agreement between India and the EU began to look even less likely during March than when the failure of the current round of negotiations was announced on February 13. It has got less likely since
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18 Apr 12
As pressure on Australia’s recalcitrant wool growers to phase mulesing out intensifies, the country’s leading wool auctioneer has revealed that non-mulesed wool attracts no price premium over mulesed.
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18 Apr 12
Levi and Nike announced significant developments in cutting water use in finishing and dyeing. But though both developments are impressive, the water they save is trivial compared to the volume used in a garment's life cycle
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18 Apr 12
Greenpeace has now widened its attack on hazardous chemicals in textile production to their effect on consumer-country watercourses when garments are laundered – and challenged brands to eliminate their major use by the end of this year.
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18 Apr 12
Major brands flatly denied at the end of March claims by the Clean Clothes Campaign that H&M, C&A, Esprit, Lee and Zara continue to use sandblasting in making jeans,
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18 Apr 12
During 2011 Ciudad Juarez lost 10 maquiladora plants, which accounts for one third of maquilas closed throughout Mexico, according to the Mexican Statistics Agency, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica (INEGI).
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18 Apr 12
Honduras has been hit by a number of new garment factory closures, followed by a petition by US unions against infractions of labour rights which might possibly lead to US sanctions against the country.
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18 Apr 12
European and American media have become increasingly preoccupied with the belief garment production is (or maybe just ought to be) moving back home – while the US government seriously argues that it expects to see growing apparel exports .
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18 Apr 12
Vietnam, which in 2011 had the highest inflation rate (peaking at 23% in August) of any major apparel producer, saw consumer price rises in March down to 14.2%. The move has sparked hope that interest rates might soon follow:
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18 Apr 12
Texhong’s early March announcement of an intended $300 million spinning investment in Vietnam’s northern province of Quang Ninh provoked a downgrading of its debt March 23 by ratings agency Moodys. The downgrade coincides with increasing difficulties throughout the in obtaining local authority permission to build resource intensive textile facilities.
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18 Apr 12
The Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) began on March 211 a campaign to try to encourage the country's garment industry workers to demand a rise in the minimum wage. More than 60,000 flyers are being handed out to garment workers, including a threat of mass demonstrations nationwide if their demands are ignored.
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18 Apr 12
The Phnom Penh municipal police chief denied claims his officers had beaten three female garment factory workers with batons and shields on March 27 during a protest in which a 21-year-old’s nose was allegedly broken.
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18 Apr 12
Nike has asked the International Labour Organisation to investigate two mass fainting incidents at its Cambodian supplier Sabrina (Cambodia) Manufacturing in early April and report on its findings.
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17 Apr 12
Thailand increased its minimum wage 40% to 300 baht a day in Bangkok and six surrounding provinces on April 1, in spite of a threat from Thailand’s 15 biggest garment makers to stop expanding locally. In practice, employers would probably see an increase of about 10.2% in wages, according to the country’s National Economic and Social Development Board.
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