The sale of illegal clothing in the country is of 16 thousand 500 million dollars annually, which represents 66 percent of the value of the garment market in Mexico that amounts to 25 billion dollars a year, warned Manuel Espinosa, president of the National Chamber of the Textile Industry (Canaintex).
« So two out of every three garments fall into the field of illegality, either undervalued, smuggled or imported temporarily under a sectoral program, as they must be exported, but sold in the country.
« The illegality and abuse of sectoral foreign trade programs that allow temporary finished products that are not exported and remain in Mexico to enter the country; seriously damage the chain of these industries, » said Relbo Raúl Treviño , president of the Cotton Product System Committee at the national level.
One of the alternatives to promote the textile and clothing sector, together with the agricultural sector, is through the project « From the field to the sideboard », which seeks to substitute cotton imports to consume what is « Made in Mexico ».
The sale of illegal clothing in Mexico reaches 66%. Photo: Reformation.
Of the total cotton used in the textile sector, 50 percent is imported and of that amount, 99 percent comes from the United States, said Espinosa.
This is where there is great potential to substitute imports by encouraging local supply, « said Espinosa.
The project would trigger the generation of 350 thousand direct jobs in the first three years.
« The program does not require financial support, it requires willingness, authorizations for (cotton) seeds, of the new generation in agriculture and in the textile sector, to support us with illegal imports, which comes from raw materials irregularly, which Help Economy, « Treviño stressed.