The leather industry could shed significant numbers of jobs in poor and rich countries following a successful WTO Doha Development Round agreement on industrial and textile goods. Its aim is to slash tariffs across the board and in that instance, said a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, there will be winners and losers. Increased competition would make rich country leather sector employment fall: by 30% in Japan and by 20% in Canada, for instance. Rationalisation in poor developing countries would also spark job losses in the sector, although of less than 10%, except in Bangladesh, where 13.6% job losses are predicted. Some emerging economies would pick up the slack, however. Bulgaria would ‘enjoy export gains in all sectors, particularly leather…’, with job numbers rising by 5.2%. South-east Asia’s leather industry would boom, boosting sector job numbers by 24.5% and China (plus Hong Kong) would gain 8.2% more leather industry jobs.
* http://192.91.247.38/tab/namameeting/NAMAstudy.pdf
