Mr. Renato Palmi holds a Masters’ in Economic Development from the School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His areas of focus are the South African clothing, textile and fashion sectors within the context of local and international trade and development.

Mr. Renato aims at the creation of network opportunities with South African designers and foreign boutiques as well as with foreign Fashion Event organizers to provide an opportunity to showcase South African design content. He also aims at developing links with research organizations that study the clothing, textile and fashion sectors. He wishes to pursue a Ph.D. to further develop his research on the growing fashion sector in South Africa.

Mr. Renato shares his views on the South African Customs Sector Programme (CSP) for clothing and textiles with www.fibre2fashion.com:

With the announcement of the South African Customs Sector Programme (CSP) for clothing and textile being finalized, there are specific areas that the DTI and unions must look into. These are the compliance of certain regulations such as labels on imports not by the large retail chains, but by the smaller boutiques that stock mostly imported apparel and constitute competition for our local designers.

One of the goals of the CSP is to curb illegal apparel imports. I urge the government to take the issue of illegal imports very seriously. I believe the major culprits are the private and smaller independent boutiques - those that stock all imported goods. I really don’t think that the larger retailers will risk any negative publicity by importing illegal goods. Anyway, they are already sourcing from alternative suppliers. The unions have focused their attention on the large retail chains. Is it not time that they focus on the small boutiques? I am by no way advocating a demise in small business development or creating unnecessary complications for business development – we in South Africa need business growth – what I am advocating is that the level of criticism directed towards the retail chains and the call or rather the demand by unions that they stock 70% local content be directed towards all clothing retailers.

Can you imagine the growth in local designed content for consumers if all boutiques had to also stock up to 50% local content? The trickle-down effect for the design industry would, in my opinion, be enormous.

Go into any boutique that stocks mostly imported apparel and you will note that they do not comply 100% with the label regulations, with many of the items they are merchandising having no labels except the boutique's own label. Take a walk though town (I refer in particular to Durban) and note the increase in Chinese-owned shops that stock Chinese apparel imports. Are they abiding with label regulations and the quota restrictions? These outlets, legal or illegal, increase competition not only for the boutiques that are owned by South African designers or boutiques that support local content, but also for our designers who cannot compete with the prices of the knock-off designs that are found in these shops.

It is, therefore, imperative that the government and unions regulate, monitor and deal with these outlets instead of focusing on the easy targets.

Furthermore, what assurance or incentive does the CSP give to the South African apparel sector to invest in capital-intensive equipment when the quotas on Chinese imports are planned to end in 2008 and the state of affairs may return to the pre-quota environment? Upgrading technology as is suggested in the CSP will lead to employment loss. What will be the reaction from SACTWU – will they penalize or condemn any manufacturers that do invest in technology that replaces labour? For the CSP to call for the promotion of high value design content is questionable when research indicates that the shortage of textile variety and the cost of labour prohibit South African fashion designers producing competitively priced products.

I feel that until South African consumers are directly targeted about the importance of supporting locally designed content and how their purchase of such apparel has an economic knock-on effect, South African consumers will continue to seek cheaper high-designed content. It is in this context that the South African designer community must become a collective to engage with the SA government and retailers big and small to promote a national, ongoing marketing campaign targeted towards consumers.

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