The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry announced that the organization fully supports the European Commission’s latest proposals to EU Member States concerning textiles and apparel that have been blocked at the EU border.


FESI’s original position was and remains that the organization is against new and additional quota or import restrictions for clothing and textiles. However, due to the severity of the current situation, we are urging Member States to support the Commission’s proposals for the following reasons:

1. The blocked garments are intended for sale in the next few months and due to their fashion-dependency, cannot be sold at a later date. No EU production has the capacity to fill this gap at such short notice.

2. The uncertainty of profit or loss and the tying-up of liquidity are endangering our industry’s ability to develop future seasons’ collections, in essence jeopardising thousands of jobs in design and product development, as well as in the sports retailers in the EU.

3. The EU sporting goods industry needs a stable, predictable trade framework and policies in order to build sustainable business. This is not what we are getting at present.

“If Member States do not support the proposals put forward by the Commission, the problem will only get worse and this will lead to even further damage to the EU sporting goods industry,” said Mr Karl Sedlmeyer, Chair of the FESI Trade and Customs committee. “Once this issue has been resolved, the Commission needs to stand by its commitments to eliminate all quotas by the end of 2007. The European textile and clothing industry must then use this period of predictability to focus on restructuring,” he added.