Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni was criticised by both government and trade unions on Tuesday for his recent condemnation of government’s decision to restrict clothing and textile imports from China.
President Thabo Mbeki and several government ministers met trade union leaders at the presidential trade union working-group meeting in Pretoria, where the quotas on clothing and textile imports from China were discussed.
Mboweni told Parliament last month that the quotas did not make economic sense and would not save an industry that was not competitive.
”If you have not become competitive, you have no dog’s chance in hell of becoming competitive in the three years or so that the quota will be imposed,” he told the portfolio committee on finance.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said Mbeki was jokingly asked if Mboweni was the new minister of trade and industry because it was not his duty to comment on the deal.
”The remarks were unfortunate … they were absolutely irresponsible,” Vavi said.
Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union general secretary Ebrahim Patel said Mboweni did not have sufficient understanding of the deal.
He said it did not only consist of import quotas but also a plan to revitalise the industry.
”It looks at areas of plant upgrade, infusion of technology into the sector, significant skilling of workers; it fosters partnership between designers and manufactures, it deals with issues of improving logistics; it goes to the hart of dealing with competitiveness,” he said.
Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said the quotas come after months of planning and ”are not some crazy action”.
But he agreed with Mboweni that China was not solely to blame for the textile and clothing industry’s woes.
”It’s undergoing severe strain for particular reasons and those reasons are not China alone, but it is also matters that are more fundamental to the industry itself,” Mpahlwa said.
He said with the plan he would soon announce the industry does have an opportunity to grow.
”You need to allow space, breathing space if you want to call [it] that, and one of those is quotas on Chinese imports,” he said. — Sapa