In a recent interview with this newspaper the new Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ronald Webster said that small local clothing manufacturers concerned over the importation of cheap clothing and what they consider to be the unfair competition that such imports present for local seamstresses and other manufacturers should make their views known to the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association. (GMSA)
Mr. Webster’s pronouncement is an interesting one if only because the issue of cheap imports, the quality – in some instances – of those imports and the underselling of some locally produced goods, notably clothing, is not a matter on which either the private sector or the government has been particularly forthcoming. The reasons almost certainly have to do with the fact that Chinese merchants have become the largest importers of clothing and other items which are sold locally through their various wholesale and retail outlets and there has been no shortage of consumer complaints about some of those imports.
The first time we raised the issue of dumping and consumer complaints about sub-standard Chinese imports, particularly clothing, the Ministry responsible for Consumer Protection told us that since the country subscribed to a culture of free trade there was really nothing that it wanted to do to staunch the flow of Chinese imports. Of course, the response was silent on the issue of consumer complaints and what, in many instances, was the apparent refusal of the Chinese merchants to provide replacements or refunds.
The continual expansion of the Chinese distribution and retail facilities suggests that their penetration of the local market is growing despite, first, the complaints about sub-standard goods and, secondly, the impact of that penetration on the small manufacturing pursuits of the seamstresses who operate with wafer thin profit margins from malls across the country and who, in response to questions about expansion and greater competitiveness, say to you that opportunities for expansion are limited by the tightfistedness of lending institutions. Meanwhile the scale of the clothing imports renders our remaining seamstresses and needlecraft people progressively disadvantaged as far as being able to compete is concerned.
What then do our disadvantaged manufacturers say to the GMSA and more to the point how does the GMSA respond to their complaints. While Mr. Webster’s comment implies that the GMSA ought to be influential enough to represent the case of local manufacturers to the government and secure a response that brings a measure of ease to local manufacturers, the truth of the matter is that there is really no evidence that it can do so. If the GMSA would want to say a mouthful about what it is doing for the manufacturing sector in Guyana, conversations with local manufacturers send a different message. They complain about high raw material import duties, high electricity costs, Value Added Taxes and – on top of all that – competition from cheaper imported products, issues which they argue ought to be on the top of the GMSA’s agenda. Incidentally, it has been no different with the PSC.
The truth is that issues like dumping and unfair competition have been part of the trading agenda for some time now and it is the government and not the private sector bodies that have been ‘calling the shots’ as far as these issues are concerned. The more recent issue of the proliferation of Chinese goods and merchants is of course a far more difficult nut to crack. Indeed, when we raised the matter with a local manufacturer in the clothing sector the answer we got suggested that the best we could do is ‘grin and bear it.’ Of course, neither the government nor the private sector umbrella organizations have an answer that is likely to satisfy those small manufacturers in the local clothing sector who must watch the continued growth and expansion of the distribution and retail trade in what is often sub-standard imports while their own small businesses crumble into oblivion.
