Jordan Times
Monday, September 25, 2006
Garment companies seek
to expand share of US market
By Mahmoud Al Yahya
AMMAN — In a bid to further promote exports of Jordanian textiles and garments
to the United States, seven local companies recently participated in the Magic
Apparel Exhibition, the industry’s premier showcase event.
The companies’ participation in the event, held in Las Vegas earlier this month,
was sponsored by the Business and Export Development of Jordanian Enterprises (TATWEER),
Jordan Upgrade and Modernisation Programme (JUMP) and the Jordan Garments
Accessories and Textiles Exporters Association (JGATE).
Nayef Stetieh, CEO of TATWEER, a USAID-funded project, told The Jordan Times on
Sunday that the sponsorship of the companies forms part of their mission to
continue fostering trade links between Jordanian small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs)
and the US and other international importers.
“We believe that the garment industry in Jordan is one of the key industries
that contribute to the development of our national economy and therefore we
sponsored these companies to help them expose their products and form commercial
relationships with American buyers,” said Stetieh
He also said that TATWEER will help JGATE become a more sustainable entity as
“it is a Jordanian organisation that aims to enhance Jordanian garment exporters
to the US market.”
The Magic Apparel Exhibition is the garment industry’s largest exhibition,
taking place twice a year and bringing together more than 1,400 exhibitors and
over 100,000 retailers, buyers, and sourcing managers from the US market.
JGATE CEO Raghad Hadid told The Jordan Times that participation in the
exhibition was necessary to continue promoting Jordanian products and the
benefits of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to potential American buyers.
“More than 300 serious potential buyers visited the Jordanian companies’
booths,” said Hadid.
“We did not only promote the products of the companies that were present in the
exhibition, we also distributed a brochure that contained a list of the products
and the contact lists of our 66 members, and the Jordanian garments industry as
a whole.”
She added that one of the exhibiting companies was successful in signing an
immediate deal with American importers as they had presented “sophisticated
products for very competitive prices.”
Over the past seven years Jordan has witnessed a boom in exports of textiles and
garments to the US, which has become Jordan’s second largest trading partner
after Saudi Arabia.
As a result of the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) deal and the Jordan-US FTA,
signed in December 2001, the country’s exports to America have soared from a
meagre $13 million in 1999 to $1.3 billion in 2005.
Clothing and garments remain the major export items, constituting 92.3 per cent
of all goods. Total exports to the US in this sector totalled JD463.8 million in
the first seven months of this year.
In the region, the US has signed free trade agreements with Bahrain, Israel,
Oman and Morocco, and is currently holding talks with Egypt.
Currently, more than 18,000 Jordanians and 35,000 foreigners are employed in the
country’s textile and garments industry.