According to the Lesotho Times report on September 21, Lesotho Minister of Trade, Industrial and Commercial Development and Tourism Shulile said that the government is formulating a plan to deal with successive waves of unemployment in the textile industry. . Prior to this, SunTextiles had just decided to put 600 workers on unpaid leave for five months, causing a heavy blow to the textile industry. Schuyler did not specifically mention SunTextiles’ problems in the interview, but he said the government would soon address the challenges facing the textile industry. Schueller noted that Lesotho Prime Minister Matt Cain recently stated at a public meeting that the international orders were real, but that processing them meant following certain procedures. The first step is to inspect samples and agree on a price, and then the buyer travels to Lesotho to assess whether the factory has favorable conditions to produce the product. The process could take six months and save 30,000 jobs.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market since it was signed into law in October 2000 Lesotho has been a beneficiary of this preferential policy for a long time, and its textile exports rely heavily on the US market. However, Lesotho’s textile industry has performed poorly over the past three years, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the world, disrupted the global economy, and continued to reduce orders from the United States. In order to escape economic difficulties, Lesotho’s textile factory owners (most of whom are Asian employers) have closed their factories and chosen to invest and set up factories in countries such as Bangladesh that do not rely on the single market for survival. In addition to the 600 workers SunTextiles laid off this week, other companies are also making planned layoffs or reducing hours. Makakole, head of the National Apparel and Textile Union (NACTWU), said the situation in the textile industry remains severe and the union is negotiating with SunTextiles management on the issue of unpaid leave. Global International Garments, a subsidiary of Nien Hsing Textile Group, has also reduced employees’ working hours to avoid complete company collapse. This reduces workers’ real incomes and risks losing their jobs altogether unless industry conditions improve. On Tuesday, Ricky Chang, head of Nianxing Group, said his company was facing its worst financial situation ever. The group closed its Glory International subsidiary in 2020, resulting in 1,500 workers losing their jobs. Two other subsidiaries (Nien Hsing International and C&Y Garments) also closed last year, resulting in the loss of 5,400 jobs. </p
