Argentina'S Restrictions On Textile Imports And Soaring Domestic Clothing Prices

The report of the Argentina Institute of industrial economics released in June 17th said that Argentina was severely restricted.

Imports make domestic enterprises lack the motivation to improve their competitiveness.

Soaring prices have added to the burden of consumers.

The report pointed out that in the first 4 months of this year, Argentina's textile imports amounted to US $133 million 800 thousand, a decrease of 12% over the same period last year.

This is the first time that Argentina's textile imports have declined since the financial crisis.

The decrease in imports has reduced the trade deficit in Argentina textile trade in the first 4 months of this year from 124 million US dollars in the same period last year to 102 million US dollars.

The report stressed that the Arab government's restrictions on textile imports continued to be overweight, including the increase of import tariffs, the implementation of the non automatic import licensing system and the adoption of anti-dumping measures. Most of the restrictions were targeted on Chinese textiles, leading to serious impact on China's export of textiles to Argentina.

According to the report, excessive protection has greatly reduced the competitive pressure of Argentina textile enterprises, and lacks the motivation to invest and innovate to improve the competitiveness of products. Instead, we have adopted ways of raising prices to increase the profits of enterprises, which eventually passed on to consumers.

According to the Institute's survey, from April 2011 to April 2012, the price of clothing in Argentina's main areas rose by 26% to 30%, which exceeded the inflation rate of the same period.

The report also predicts that the Arab government's restrictions on imported textiles will not be eliminated in the short term, and consumers will have to continue to buy high priced domestic textiles.