Employers and unions representing the Brazilian textile industry joined forces and protested against the increase of clothing imports from China which led to a loss of 55,000 jobs in the sector this year, during the Chinese international textile trade fair ‘GO TEX SHOW’ held recently in Sao Paolo.

 

According to a statement issued by Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (ABIT) which organised the protest, the textile and clothing industry entrepreneurs and workers protested at the Chinese fair in Sao Paolo under the banner ‘Grito de Alerta’ for the sake of the domestic textile industry.

 

Fernando Pimentel, executive director of ABIT, said the employers and labor unions of the textile sector in the country want to bring to notice the problems faced by the domestic textile industry due to the imported products from Asia, especially China.

 

Aguinaldo Diniz Filho, ABIT president, said the competitiveness of companies to contend with international firms has long ceased to exist, and besides combating these unfair imports, there is an urgent need for the Brazilian textile industry to be decentralized.

 

Paulo Pereira da Silva, president of Force Association, the largest textile labor union in the country , said the invasion of foreign products is creating an unfair competition amongst textile firms in the country and many have shutdown operations resulting into the loss of thousands of jobs. 

 

According to several textile associations and labor unions in the country, in the recent years there has been an indiscriminate increase of imports of clothing and textiles, mainly from China and this has led to an increase in the number of redundancies caused by closure of many textile and clothing factories in the country, he added.

 

Other associations that joined forces with ABIT included Association of Textile Industries of the State of Sao Paulo (SINDITEXTIL), Union of the Clothing Industry (SINDIVESTUARIO), Union of Textile Industry Specialties of Sao Paolo (SIETEX), and National Confederation of Workers in Textile, Garment, and Leather Sector (CONACCOVEST).

 

As per the study of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), from January to September 2013, there has been a loss of 55,000 jobs in the textile sector of Brazil, due to the shutting down of many factories operating in the sector.