ILO to host talks on global textile and clothing trade
17/10/2005
Business, labour, and government leaders from key textile and clothing producing and consuming countries are to gather in Geneva October 24-26 under aegis of the International Labour Office (ILO) for wide-ranging talks on the future of the industry in the wake of last year's phase-out of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA).
The meeting will bring leaders from the concerned parties who produce, buy and sell textiles and clothing together for the first time since the MFA phase-out to examine what has happened since then. Participants will discuss strategic and policy responses that concern more than 40 million workers worldwide and hundreds of thousands of enterprises in the $350 billion global clothing and textile sector.
"In the post-MFA environment, businesses and workers in the textile and clothing sector are under enormous pressure to produce the right product, at the right price, at the right time and under the right conditions", said Juan Somavia, director-general of the ILO. "This meeting will discuss the elements involved in fashioning new strategic and policy responses throughout the global supply chain."
A new study prepared by the ILO for the meeting says that despite widespread concern that the lifting of global textile and clothing quotas in January 2005 would be a labour and trade catastrophe for many developing countries, the results thus far of the phasing out of the MFA have been a mixed bag.
The meeting will bring leaders from the concerned parties who produce, buy and sell textiles and clothing together for the first time since the MFA phase-out to examine what has happened since then. Participants will discuss strategic and policy responses that concern more than 40 million workers worldwide and hundreds of thousands of enterprises in the $350 billion global clothing and textile sector.
"In the post-MFA environment, businesses and workers in the textile and clothing sector are under enormous pressure to produce the right product, at the right price, at the right time and under the right conditions", said Juan Somavia, director-general of the ILO. "This meeting will discuss the elements involved in fashioning new strategic and policy responses throughout the global supply chain."
A new study prepared by the ILO for the meeting says that despite widespread concern that the lifting of global textile and clothing quotas in January 2005 would be a labour and trade catastrophe for many developing countries, the results thus far of the phasing out of the MFA have been a mixed bag.
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