Brussels, 17/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Tunisian Industry Minister Afif Chelbi has called on the EU “not to give in to the siren call of protectionism currently being heard in Europe” and to counter “recent suggestions and calls from industrial pressure groups for the country of origin to be marked on (clothing) imports into Europe”. Compulsory labelling of where imported clothes are made would “significantly increase production and logistics costs and would damage the 'win-win' partnership that we have been building up over several decades with the EU” and would “bring unfair discrimination against the countries of the Maghreb,” he argued.
This was a measure proposed by the Commission in 2005, but, in the face of general apathy from member states, it was abandoned. With the approach of the European elections, Italy resurrected the matter, calling for it to be put on the table once again. Chelbi, in his closing speech at the Euro-Mediterranean textile and clothing exhibition TEXMED, which took place in Tunis from 10 to 12 June, it would be the “perfect example of a mistaken good idea. If all it took was to sew 'Made in” labels on clothes to tackle the invasion of unfair competition onto Western markets, then we would have heard about it and would have been doing so long ago,” he said. The measure would be “completely inappropriate because goes against the development of the necessary industrial and commercial partnership between the two rims of the Mediterranean”. He noted that, in a statement adopted on 11 April 2007, the textile/clothing industry organisations of most European and Mediterranean countries firmly opposed such a move and the issue was deemed to be “crucial for the future of Euro-Mediterranean relations”.
Chelbi also called for the reform of the European so-called “double transformation” rule which taxes products manufactured in one Mediterranean country but made in part from cloth or thread from somewhere outside the Euro-Mediterranean area. He said Tunisian clothes makers “should be able to use cloth no matter which country it comes from to produce and export trousers or shirts duty free to Europe”. Tunisia wants to come under the same regime as Turkey, the “single transformation” regime, that is applied as part of the customs union with the EU. That would “significantly improve the sector's competitiveness and would have a resoundingly positive impact on industrial activity, exports and employment in the textile-clothing sector that is essential to Tunisia's socio-economic balance,” the minister said. (F.B./transl.rt)