Flooded with cheap Chinese clothes and other consumer goods, Senegal's merchants say that even quality goods are taking a hit from cheap imitation Chinese products. Chinese goods have been flooding Senegal in recent years, pushing out locally produced products. Chinese merchants have also displaced Senegalese merchants, according to Senegalese shopkeepers.
Now Chinese products are imitating higher quality imports and local craft goods, causing buyers to dispute whether goods are genuine, or refusing to pay higher prices. The market in general is becoming saturated due to the Chinese floods of imports.
Senegalese peddlers, also known for their international presence, are calling for import embargoes and tariffs; others want the Chinese deported. They say that Senegalese manufacture is too fragile and will be crushed by the cheap imported Chinese goods.
Showing posts with label imports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imports. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2009
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Meanwhile people are going hungry
Saturday, May 17, 2008
This from Reuters:
"ROME (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. food agency hit back on Thursday at criticism from the president of his home country Senegal, who has called the organisation "a bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning."
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation since 1993, said the broadside from President Abdoulaye Wade was politically motivated and factually incorrect."
Diouf is actually a former Senegalese minister himself. President Wade has pushed a Senegalese agricultural self-sufficiency program, something that doesn't look to put food on Senegalese plates right away.
The Reuters story states that Senegal has one of the largest per capita food import figures. It stands to reason that skyrocking fuel prices would hit Senegal harder than most.
Between the lines we read that Wade wants food programs based in Africa where he has more control over them.
If Wade's agricultural self-sufficiency program starts to show success, maybe closer integration with world support is justified. But the UN is addressing an immediate food crisis that is giving President Wade his one of his biggest political liabilities. Not only is picking a fight to divert attention short sighted--it is below the statemanship that Wade has shown up to now.
This from Reuters:
"ROME (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. food agency hit back on Thursday at criticism from the president of his home country Senegal, who has called the organisation "a bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning."
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation since 1993, said the broadside from President Abdoulaye Wade was politically motivated and factually incorrect."
Diouf is actually a former Senegalese minister himself. President Wade has pushed a Senegalese agricultural self-sufficiency program, something that doesn't look to put food on Senegalese plates right away.
The Reuters story states that Senegal has one of the largest per capita food import figures. It stands to reason that skyrocking fuel prices would hit Senegal harder than most.
Between the lines we read that Wade wants food programs based in Africa where he has more control over them.
If Wade's agricultural self-sufficiency program starts to show success, maybe closer integration with world support is justified. But the UN is addressing an immediate food crisis that is giving President Wade his one of his biggest political liabilities. Not only is picking a fight to divert attention short sighted--it is below the statemanship that Wade has shown up to now.
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