Ghanaian tailors can make quality garments to compete on US market – Donald Teitelbaum
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum believes that garment makers in the country can compete on the US market with quality apparels just like their counterparts in other countries like Mexico.
Teitelbaum refused to accept the assertion that Ghanaian tailors and seamstresses cannot make quality garments like in Mexico.
“I do not buy this argument, particularly, in things like apparel manufacture that Ghana can’t be fully competitive with any other country…may be the US,” Teitelbaum said at an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) panel discussion held in Accra June 14, 2012.
He conceded that even though the US makes great suits, only a per cent of men’s business suits in America is actually made in the country with the rest coming from Mexico, China, Poland and Philippines.
“I refuse to accept that any of these countries has some fundamental advantages over Ghana or Africa in general,” Teitelbaum reiterated.
But the Ambassador argues that there have been some challenges that Ghana is facing in the textiles industry to make it competitive on the international market. He mentioned that power supply cut has been the biggest obstacle to the textile industry, saying, “It’s not about the cost but the reliability.”
A panel member at the discussion, Mr Kwaku Adu Mensah who is the former General Manager of the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) noted that the mode of trading with the US is changing since the emergence of Chinese trade.
Mr Adu Mensah said the volumes of textile apparels in 1994-95 exported from Ghana were around $4 million.
Ghana’s apparel export to the US under AGOA is said to be insignificant. Kenya, Mauritius and Lesotho are leading Africa’s export of apparel, knit and woven to the US. Apparel exports increased by 21% ($445 million) with knit and woven up by 14% ($409 million).
Teitelbaum therefore encouraged Ghanaian garment makers to do more intra-Africa trade in order to expand their businesses. This, according to the US Ambassador will enable them to enter the US market.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law on May 18, 2000 as Title 1 of The Trade and Development Act of 2000. The Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets.
By Ekow Quandzie