. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/C/W/599 
21 May 2008 
 
 (08-2376) 
Council for Trade in Goods Original:   English 
  
 
ISSUES RELATED TO TRADE IN TEXTILES  
 
Communication from Turkey
 
  
 The following communication, dated 21 May 2008, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Turkey.  
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The textiles and clothing sector has been the backbone of development for many 
economies. As a matter of fact, this industry has made a major contribution to economic growth in 
developing countries through increasing exports as we ll as presenting solutions to unemployment 
problems.  
2. However, textiles and clothing sectors had been subject to differentiated treatment in the 
history of multilateral trading system until the e xpiration of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing 
(ATC) on 1 January 2005.  
3. Three years have passed since the abolition of  quotas on the textiles and clothing sector and 
this significant change has drastically reshaped  the global production patterns, trade flows and 
investment decisions in this time period. 
4. Evidently, the termination of the ATC signals different concerns and challenges for countries 
with diverse economic capacities.  
5. The possession of know-how on ways and means to stay afloat in this new environment will 
apparently be an asset for countries to cope wi th these challenges. To that end, a thorough 
examination of the post-ATC era is necessary. 
6. Accordingly, Turkey is submitting a new propo sal to the attention of the WTO Members. 
II. THE PROPOSAL 
7. One of the appropriate ways of the above-men tioned examination could be a compilation of 
studies already conducted by some international organi zations and elaboration on their findings in co-
operative workshops. Therefore, as a first step, the WTO Secretariat, with the contribution of 
interested Members, could compile, by stocktaki ng exercise, all those studies already conducted by 
the selected organizations such as UNCTAD, OECD and IMF. 
8. As the second step, the studies from the compila tion could be elaborated in detail in a 
workshop via co-operation of the WTO with the rela ted organizations. Such a workshop is believed to G/C/W/599 
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  provide ample opportunity to gather all inter ested parties, countries and non-governmental 
organizations, in a multilateral framework, for an exchange of opinions on current challenges and 
fruitful discussions on the way forward. 
9. In that regard, Turkey suggests the OECD Se cretariat’s currently ongoing analysis on the 
economic impacts of the phase-out.  The study is titled  "Economic Impact of the Phase-Out in 2005 of 
Quantitative Restrictions Under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing".
1  
III. CONCLUSION 
10. The stocktaking exercise and workshops to be organized, will result in a sharing of 
experiences and thus provide the least develope d and developing countries with the most-needed 
know-how to improve their competitiveness in th e new environment surrounding the textiles and 
clothing sectors. 
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1 The draft study is available at http ://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/38/40369592.pdf.