Greens blame tariffs for Fabia's demise

By ELLEN READ

A Te Kuiti shoe factory which closed this week after 37 years in production is the latest casualty of the Government's decision to cut tariffs on footwear and textiles, say Green politicians.

The Fabia shoe factory shut yesterday with the loss of 27 jobs in the small King Country town.

The factory manufactured shoes under its own Fabia label and made some private label products for other footwear retailers.

Green Party co-leader Rod Donald said the company was forced out of business by unfair competition from cheap, sweatshop-manufactured imports.

"The Government is sacrificing jobs and livelihoods on the altar of free trade," he said.

Import duties on clothing, footwear and textiles will be cut to between five and 10 per cent by mid-2009 from current levels of up to 19 per cent.

Fabia owner Tony Anselmi said the reasons for the closure were wider than just the tariff issue.

But he thought politicians needed to take a longer-term view of how to help and protect the local economy.

"It's a combination of lots of things, including tariffs and globalisation," Anselmi said.

"Maybe if they'd left the tariffs in place this wouldn't be happening, but who can tell.

"The action now is all to the East, to the low labour-cost countries.

"The problem with New Zealand is that there's no long-term plan for where we want to be in 20 years.

"If we had a national understanding of that and slowly worked towards it we might get somewhere.

"Instead all we've got is new politicians who come in all the time and think they can save the country and prove to the rest of the world the way to go."

The family has been in the footwear industry for three generations - more than 50 years.

Anselmi's father opened three footwear shops in the King Country in the 1950s. Tony Anselmi took them over in 1956.

His son, Shane, joined the business 16 years ago and is now a major shareholder in Overland Footwear.

The closure came days after Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton announced a $200,000 plan to help the textiles industry adjust to lower tariffs.

Business New Zealand is not impressed, saying the money is not enough to have a meaningful effect on regional development and economic growth.

Chief executive Simon Carlaw said the high-end fashion design industry would be gutted of cutting, machinist and other skills if the t-shirt making part of the industry foundered under tariff reforms.

"There is a critical mass of skills that needs to be nurtured through the next five years or so, to avoid those skills being lost to the industry forever."