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Israel
Clothing and Textiles
During the mid-1950s,
Israel, like other developing countries, promoted the textile
and apparel industry to be a ready source of employment. By 1985
the textile and clothing industry was represented by 1,523 establishments.
These businesses employed about 46,000 workers (representing 15
percent of industrial workers) and earned revenues equal to approximately
US$13 million, or 8.8 percent of total industrial earnings. In
1988 Israel continued to promote this industry as a source of
employment for unskilled and semiskilled immigrants and for local
Israeli Arab labor.
The textile and apparel industries were characterized by many
small firms and a few large, vertically integrated companies (including
Polgat Enterprises, considered one of the most efficient producers
in the world). Like other Israeli industries, the textile and
apparel industry depended for its survival on its ability to export
to Europe and the United States. Given the generally high tariff
barriers in Europe and the United States on such products, the
agreement Israel signed with the European Economic Community (EEC)
in 1977, the Israel-EEC Preferential Agreement, as well as the
United States-Israel Free Trade Area Agreement (as of 1987) have
lowered and will lower further these tariffs, thus making Israeli
textile and apparel products marginally competitive. Duty savings
were not expected to play a major role in increasing Israel's
trade competitiveness in these markets as long as Israeli wages
in these industries were higher then comparable wages in Asia.
Because they pay higher wages, Israeli textile and apparel producers
have continued to concentrate on the more expensive segment of
the market.
Data as of December 1988
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