South Africa Protects Textile Apparel Industry from Contacting for Free Trade Agreement

Rob Daview, Minister of Trade and Industry of South Africa stated that due to the fragile competitiveness of South Africa's textile and garment industry, he decided to reject Turkey's proposal to negotiate a free trade agreement between the two countries.

Over the past decade, the textile and garment industry in South Africa has lost thousands of job opportunities as a result of competition from Asia, especially mainland China.

Minister Davies stated that Turkey is another major textile and garment manufacturing country after China. In order to protect South Africa’s industry, it decided not to negotiate a free trade agreement with Turkey.

Minister Davies will visit Turkey in the first quarter of next year and will discuss another acceptable trade agreement between the two parties.

The bilateral trade between Turkey and South Africa reached 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. Affected by the global financial crisis and economic recession, the total trade volume between the two countries fell to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars last year.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited South Africa last month to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. As Turkey will expand its embassy preparations next year, the number will be expanded from the current 24 to 33, so the Turkish Prime Minister proposed to negotiate with South Africa free trade agreement requirements, hoping to strengthen trade with Africa.