The Association of Textile Companies of Russia has urged its President Vladimir Putin to order the destruction of all imported clothes from certain foreign countries, in particular, textiles imported from Europe and the United States. Russia’s annual textile market incomes are at approximatel50y USD $31 billion, and more than USD $9 billion of it is the part of foreign imported textiles.

According to Shakhmal Ildarov, president of the Association of Textile Companies of Russia, it doesn’t make sense to buy manufactured textile products from the European Union countries and support these countries’ economy, while they are introducing negative policies against them.

Ildarov proposes that Russia should not only stop importing foreign textiles, but should announce these products as contraband, and seize them from the stores and publicly destroy them, just as Russia did with the foreign cheese and meats. Some European countries, such as Spain, do the same towards contraband.

They have been supporting Europe and its textile industry for far too long. Meanwhile, their own textile industry has suffered. In the past 14 years the share of the textile industry in the GDP has dropped by 30 times, from 12% of the GDP to 4%. If they limit the import of textile products to the maximum, not only they will support local Russian textile, but also they will prompt European companies to start cooperating with Russian textile companies.

The textile association has introduced a similar proposal to the Russian government back in 2014, but it wasn’t met with much enthusiasm.

General Director of YurPartner Law Firm, Anton Tolmachev, said that the initiative was not met with much enthusiasm back in 2014, and won’t take it seriously this time either.

The government is making a number of decisions of such kind, but always only in order to gain something for itself, or use such decisions as a public relations move. Such move won’t be beneficial to anybody, and won’t bring any positive PR. The initiating association is in crisis, and they are worried that they can’t compete with the western products.

According to Director of the Union of Russian Buyers Tatiana Yablonko, the textile sphere is indeed in crisis, but banning foreign clothes or destroying whatever is at the stores right now won’t help them.

The government instead for just eliminating foreign competition , it should offer local textile companies training, low interest loans and other similar measures to help the textile industry.