Millions 'to lose textile jobs'

Millions of the world's poorest textile trade workers will lose their jobs under new trade rules to be introduced in the new year, a charity has warned.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to end its Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) on midnight of 31 December. Christian Aid condemned the move, saying it would see almost a million jobs in Bangladesh alone being axed. However, supporters of the change claim it will mean increased efficiency and lower costs for Western consumers.

It will also see more jobs created in India and China, advocates argue. The WTO said that many developing countries support the end of quotas and stressed that funding was available to countries such as Bangladesh to help them make the transition to a fully liberalised market. "There will be a period of adjustment required," said WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell. "Some countries will do better than others but there is no one who is suggesting that no developing country will do well out of this. "Some countries where it may appear that orders will dry up have seen orders surging and there are many companies who will continue with existing trading relationships."

Christian Aid has called on British firms not to simply "cut and run" but look after their workers, in a new report called Rags To Riches To Rags.

It added that with few employment alternatives available many sacked garment workers could end up in far worse jobs - with some of the mainly female workers forced into the sex trade. The WTO itself has warned that as many as 27 million jobs could be lost as a result of liberalisation in the textile industry. Some of the world's fastest developing countries which rely on textile exports to build growth - for example in Bangladesh textiles account for almost 85% of the country's exports and the industry employs around 1.5 million people. The MFA pact has helped developing countries get a bigger share of the world market. "The losers in this new trade landscape will be some of the most vulnerable workers in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Nepal," Andrew Pendleton, Christian Aid's head of Trade Policy, said. "They will be hard-pressed to cope when garment industries there lose their protection. "We are deeply concerned that the New Year will spell misery for huge numbers of garment workers." The WTO said there was no consenus among its members to retain the quotas and emphasised that funding was available to countries such as Bangladesh to help them adjust to the liberalised market.

It added that the impact of the changes for workers most affected by the shake-up had not been considered, adding such seismic changes to policy should "put the interests of poor people first - rather than simply aiming to liberalise markets at any cost". While the current MFA was not perfect, its did allow Third World countries like Bangladesh to get onto the first rung of industrial development, Christian Aid said. "International trade must not be governed by a 'race to the bottom' that pitches one set of poor people against another," Mr Pendleton added.