An awful scene of a two-thousand-square-meter factory filled with dust its fabric machinery destroyed and covered by rust as dust and dirt fill the place at which workers have stopped working for more than ten years.
In the area of Beit Anoun east of al-Khalil light has been missing from the “Al-Khalil Clothing Factory for Women and Men” (owned by Haji Hashim Natsheh a senior businessman and the former head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the city).
Unjust agreements
Haj Hashem al-Natsheh attributed work stoppage at the factory to the economic and political agreements that destroyed the national economy. He pointed out that the Paris Economic Agreements have unleashed uncontrolled imports while the Palestinian Authority failed to protect national products.
“We were left alone to face the imported products without any support. Whatever our economic strength is we cannot compete with Chinese products despite the good quality of our products in comparison” Al-Natshe said in an exclusive interview with the PIC.
“Merchants in the West Bank especially al-Khalil have become importers as markets became full of cheap Chinese clothes” he says. “The cost of making a pajama for men was $5 and we used to sell it for $7. Today it is imported from China for $2! This destroyed our production and caused the closure of hundreds of clothing factories.”
Absence of national protection
The fate of Al-Qawasmi National Factory for Socks in al-Khalil was not better than its predecessors. Some 130 workers had their jobs terminated and the factory was closed down after its collapse. “The lack of a PA’s role in protecting national products destroyed local industries.”
He pointed out that the PA is encouraging imports rather than exports in order to raise more taxes and win the ‘royalties’ of a number of influential people at the expense of national factories and products that were completely destroyed.
Al-Qawasmi told the PIC reporter with sorrow in his eyes “With the closure of our factory 130 families were deprived of their monthly income at a time of growing unemployment as our losses exceeded three million dollars and we ended up with no money whatsoever due to unwise policies that do not keep in mind the interests of our country.”
Limitations imposed by international institutions
“The economic agreements have besieged the Palestinian national industry and tightened the screws on it while importers have been unleashed and protected” said Saeed Abdullah an economic analyst and the Director of the Economic Policy Department at MAS. “This has led to a significant decline in national industries and the inability to protect them.”
“The PA cannot protect national products by imposing taxes on imported goods because it violates World Trade Organization’s and the World Bank’s policies. The conditions for accession to these organizations require compliance with their signed protocols meaning removing barriers and restrictions on international trade and this is globalization” he concluded.
