8 September 2006

The Chief Commissioner
International Trade Administration Commission
Attention: Ms Nomonde Maimela

Dear Ms Maimela

PROPOSED QUOTA ALLOCATION CRITERIA AND AGREEMENT FOR TEXTILES AND CLOTHING ORIGINATING FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) is the facilitating body for a fellowship of 26 Christian churches and associated para-church organisations. Founded in 1968, the SACC includes among its members Protestant, Catholic, African Independent, Pentecostal and Orthodox churches with a combined constituency of roughly 15 million members and adherents. SACC members are committed to expressing jointly, through proclamation and programmes, the united witness of the church in South Africa, especially in matters of national debate.

In February 2005 The South African Council of Churches, COSATU, and a number of civil society organizations, including the Treatment Action Campaign, formed an alliance to address job losses and economic injustice: The Save Jobs Coalition. The major concern of the SJC was the loss some nearly 17 000 jobs in the clothing and textile sector in 2004 together with a general hemorrhaging of some 75 000 jobs in the same sector between 1996 and 2004 (research facts provided by the Southern African labour and Research Unit as well as Statistics South Africa). The Coalition realized that legal and illegal imports from China, amongst other factors, contributed in large measure to job losses in South Africa.

At a local level, the denominations which the SACC represents have deep roots in congregations and therefore in many communities across the country. Some of our members are clothing and textile workers and have been directly affected by the factory closures and retrenchments over the last few years. And - in a country where one job affects roughly five dependants - the knock-on effect of these job losses have had wider domestic, societal and community repercussions. In a country with massive unemployment, endemic poverty and a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic, such job losses constituted a social and moral crisis.

For these reasons - and further believing that the surge in clothing and textile imports from China led to unnecessary and avoidable suffering - the Churches urged, supported and were actively engaged in the advocacy and education work of the SJC.

In the light of the above and in the knowledge of the South African Government's current agreement to limit trade and textile goods with China, the SACC supports the proposed criteria for an implementation of the agreement with China on clothing and textiles trade. Furthermore, we call for the immediate implementation of the measures contemplated in this agreement so as to avert any further, unnecessary hardship and suffering.

Together with all concerned in this sector (government, business, retail, labour, manufacturing and civil society), we affirm the ethical and moral imperative incumbent upon us all to work together in order to save jobs and to rebuild this sector.

The attached memorandum sets out, in more detail, our position and proposals. We support too the submissions by the trade union movement.

Yours sincerely

(Mr.) Eddie Makue
General Secretary