Abstract
The 1st of January 2005 displayed a significant turn in the international textile market with the eclipse of the quota system. The end of the quota system was in effect for nearly 30 Years, guaranteed an access for the rich countries in the textile industry to penetrate in the importation market and to further enhance the overall economic development of the country. In accordance with the exit of the ATC (Agreement on Textiles and Clothing), all textile companies which were represented by the small producer were striving to become the big importer. These companies in turn, feared that there will be a flood or overflowing of clothes manufactured in China, which is still the first global clothing exporter with a 28% of the market share. In the real sense, China hadn't signed the ATC in 1975 which meant that it had signed the agreement after the 1st of January 2005. Therefore, the possibility to exporting Clothes and Textiles in the entire world without following a quota system was the objective of the Chinese market. Globally, we are all aware that China gets a low cost workforce which attracts a lot of companies in different branches of industry. The Mediterranean companies were really affected by this emergence. Prior to the end of the ATC, countries like Morocco, Tunisia or Algeria were allowed to export their textile goods to the USA or to West Europe with a tag of a specific quota. Currently, they fear an apparition of large exportations of low cost clothes from China. Furthermore, some companies established in Africa were in the next phase of attracting and involved in exporting their activities to Asia. Nowadays, in the Mediterranean, nearly 90 to 95% of the firms are only subcontractors, without specific competency levels. Thus, this report will reflect on explaining and analyzing in part one the working of the international textile markets during the ATC. In a second part, we will speak about what were the consequences and the strategies that was being adopted by the companies after the end of the ATC. And to conclude, we will explicate and describe the different possibilities for the North-African Companies.
