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they are starting to go back home, to benefit from the advantages
offered by those countries. There’s simply no way little Lesotho can
compete with such giants. Before the end of the ATC, the factories
employed a workforce of between 54 000 and 55 000 workers. It [the
textile and garment sector] is the nation’s main employer after the public
sector, but if things go on like this, we are afraid that unemployment,
which already stands at 40%, will end up reaching 70%.” These job losses
do not only represent an economic disaster for the families concerned,
but also pre-empt the premature death of many workers, as at least a
third of all those employed in this sector are HIV-positive and may not be
able to gain access to life-saving medication.
(International Trade Union Report, 2005: 9)
To alleviate the threat of employment loss and factory closures, the impact of which is
already visible, a safeguard was put in place to deal with “serious damage or threat
thereof to domestic producers” (WTO).
Most researchers and analysts confirm that China stands out as the force that dominates
clothing and textile industries internationally. This has seen an increase in new jobs that
service these industrial sectors such as the retail and transport sectors. At the same time
China’s winning of the global market share is also seen as the most serious threat to the
development of international domestic clothing and textile industries in a post-ATC
environment (Traub-Merz, 2006:9; Kaplinsky and Morris, 2006: 3).
In 2003, it was estimated that China’s total share of clothing exports was in the region of
28% (Sajhau, 2005:8). Evaluating the growth of China’s clothing exports post-2005, an ILO
submission at a tripartite meeting held in Geneva on globalisation in the textile and
clothing industry estimated that China’s exports in both textiles and clothing for the period
of January to April 2005 was in the region of 1.2 billion, up by 18.4% from 2004 for the same
period (International Trade Union World Report, 2005:6).
The growth of China’s clothing and textile global market has seen employment in China’s
industries grow accordingly. In 1995, Chinese clothing and textile workers were estimated
to be 14.7 million, and in 2004 employment had grown to 19 million (Sajhau, 2005:5). A
2005 report estimates that employment in China will increase between the years 2005 and
2018 by a further 30 % in the clothing industry alone (Sajhau, 2005:8).
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