Bureau for Africa

The views and interpretations in this paper are those of the authors and not of the affiliated institutions. 2ABSTRACT This discussion paper summarises the findings of a study carried out in 1997-1998 of the textile and clothing industries of South Africa. The full research report is also available from the EAGER project. The research combined quantitative and qualitative competitiveness analysis to identify best practices used by South African manufacturing firms. The country’s textile and clothing sector benefited greatly from domestic market protection. As South Africa rejoins regional and global economies, it faces increasing competition from legal and illegal imports at various points along the industrial value-chain and must learn to compete. Among the findings of this study are the following: · Escalating tariff structures, which protect domestic raw material and input manufacturers against imports, penalise firms which prefer to access inputs from foreign suppliers. Access to foreign suppliers at world prices is a critical component of success of major textile and apparel exporting countries. · Thinking of the fibre-fabric-apparel pipeline in integrated terms, implying that the interests along the chain should be convergent, is a strategic blunder for individual components of the industry, for which international markets now exist. Rather, each industry should focus on independent competitiveness strategies