Mexico : 10% Of Textile Export Co Forced to Shut Down In 2002

A total of 10% of export companies in the textiles industry were forced to close, resulting in laying off 50,000 Mexican workers.

Salomón Presburguer, president of the National Textile Industry Chamber, said that in 2002 some 100 companies had shut their doors out of a total of 1,000 export companies. An average of 500 jobs were eliminated in each company. This situation was the result of an increase in textile imports, both legal and illegal and as a consequence of the problems, total employment in the sector fell to just 640,000 at the end of 2002.

"One of the challenges is to halt the drop in employment... there is an emergency situation where the government must act rapidly," said Presburguer. He asked new Secretary of Economy Fernando Canales Clariond, to ratify the competitiveness program signed by his predecessor, Luis Ernesto Derbez. According to Presburguer, the textile industry declined by 6-7% last year, where the internal market saw sales fall 15%.