Brazil targets Mideast for textiles

The Sao Paulo based Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association hopes to increase Brazilian exports to the region as part of efforts to boost international trade for the country´s textile industry.

Alfredo Bonduki, consultant for the organisation, said it was planning to hold an event to promote its work in Dubai next year: "We are working to develop our business in all the countries of the Middle East.

"The Middle East is an important market for the Brazilian textiles industry. There are many Brazilian descendants of Arabic families living in Brazil and there is an Arabic Brazilian chamber of commerce which is looking at how to develop the business in the region."

He went on to say that he believed the biggest challenge faced by the industry when it came to increasing its exports to the Middle East, would be the competition posed by Asian textiles producers.

"It is a challenge to export textiles to the Middle East because of the need to compete with the Asian countries such as China."

Brazil remains the world´s biggest textiles producer, and the textiles industry accounts for 6% of the country´s GDP.

However the industry association acknowledges that there is a strong need for it to increase its international exports as only 10% of the textiles produced in the country are exported.

Bonduki explained that the country only began exporting goods in the 1990s - a process which initially had a slow start due to high inflation in the country.

"Our economy was very closed until the 1990s when it started to open.

"Until 1995 though there was a period of very high inflation and it was impossible for textiles producers to make projections on how much machinery would be needed as we did not know how much to invest.

"After that though companies started to invest in new machinery and technology and textiles investment has grown year on year since then."

He said major efforts were being made by the Textile and Apparel Industry Association to boost international trade - including marketing campaigns and appearances by Brazilian companies at major textiles fairs and events across the world.

One major obstacle the industry as a whole faced however, was high taxes and administrative delays at the country´s ports, said Bonduki, explaining that it takes nine days to clear a container to pass through the country´s ports and that tax currently accounts for a massive 30 to 40% of Brazil´s GDP.

Bonduki went on to say that the US remained a very important market for Brazilian exports - but that high taxes placed on Brazilian goods being imported into the country posed a major challenge - particularly when it came to competing with China.

He said the Brazilian government was in negotiations with the US to create a trade agreement between the country where lower taxes were charged.

"We would like to negotiate a trade agreement to reduce import taxes into the US which would create an advantage for Brazilian producers over Chinese producers," he explained, adding as an example that for every pair of jeans imported into the US from Brazil, 17% will be paid to the US government in taxes.