10 Dec 2004

Fiji garment industry to lose more jobs

8:39 am on 10 December 2004

Five-thousand Fiji garment workers are set to lose their jobs almost immediately.

This follows the decision by the United States not to extend Fiji's garment quota when it expires at the end of this month.

The announcement has been made in Suva by the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific, Randy Shriver.

Mr Shriver says Fiji may feel some pain but it has to learn to survive on the global market or perish.

Fiji's declining garment industry now employs only about 14-thousand workers, down from the 20-thousand in the industry's heyday before the May 2000 coup.