Pacific Islands Monthly
The news magazine of the South Pacific · since 1930
Pacific Islands Monthly, 1 April 1991Vol. 61, No. 4

garment industry

p. 32 · Read in the full issue

Page 3232

Quota cut shocks garment industry

FIJI’S garment manufacturers have reacted in shock to the news that Australia is to halve the country’s quota this year. The Fiji Trade and Investment Board (FTIB) had been inundated with inquiries from worried manufacturers.

Australia has indicated it will cut Fiji’s quota in order to provide in creased opportunities for other Forum nations under the Sparteca trade agree ment. Bids for increased quotas are expected to come from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, Western Samoa, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia and Niue. The news followed on the heels of an unsuccessful Fijian Submission to Canberra that the quota actually be increased.

Fiji’s garment industry (its third biggest foreign exchange earner) brings the country 5F159.4 million (SUSIII.6 million) a year. Fiji has had quota rights into Australia for about 33 per cent of its output (or 109,000 pieces).

Now it faces being allowed to export only 15 per cent to Australia. □

Digitised by the National Library of Australia · OCR text via GLAM Workbench · uncorrected OCR, expect errors
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