Import Duties and Taxes on Plain T-Shirts: Local Designers Call for Reduction

Local designers say import duties and taxes on plain T-shirts too high

By Marlon Madden

Some local fashion designers are calling for a reduction in burdensome import duties and taxes on plain T-shirts.

The call was issued on Monday as Managing Partner with Azure Studios Jamar Odwin and Founder of Ministry of Style (Barbados) Rhaj Paul suggested that the quality and quantity of plain T-shirts being produced locally were simply not up to standard to compete with those on the international market.

Importers of the plain T-shirts pay about 150 per cent in duties and taxes, which Odwin said was a hindrance to those in the industry making any profit.

“It is no secret that T-shirts carry some of the highest duties in Barbados,” he said.

“Back when that was implemented, it was to try to increase sales and production of locally made T-shirts. That was great at the time, but we are not just competing [with local manufacturers], it is with the [international brands]. So there is a certain quality that we need to achieve now more and more the world is a click of a button away. So now persons are looking for higher quality products. So for us, that is one of the biggest issues that we still have to this day – fighting with the duties,” he explained.

Stating that “if high-quality T-shirts were produced in Barbados we would use those”, Odwin said it was not a case of designers wanting to kill the garment manufacturing sector here.

“T-shirts are very rarely made now in Barbados and the quality is not even the best. When you buy a T-shirt you don’t want to purchase a T-shirt that feels like you [are] wearing cardboard.

“So it is very unfortunate that you have a lot of young designers wanting to put their ideas out there, beyond canvas or a piece of paper, on something that someone can take [overseas] and wear but it is very difficult because you purchase a T-shirt online for, let’s say, US$15 (BDS$30) and then with duties on top of that, by the time you finish, that plain T-shirt costs BDS$60.

“So to put a design on that now, you are looking at $200-plus that person now has to sell that T-shirt to make money. It is very difficult to be competitive,” Odwin lamented.

He said the T-shirts imported by designers were not considered a final product since they were not being sold as is and, therefore, they should be considered “raw material”.

“A T-shirt is a raw material for us and I think we need to move away from the fact that we are trying to protect some industry making T-shirts in Barbados,” he asserted.

Sharing similar sentiments, Paul said while the high import duties and taxes were introduced at a time when the industry here needed protection, that was no longer necessary.

“What we are doing as designers is also a local industry. What we are doing is adding value to something that exists and making it a real Bajan product and marketing Barbados. Everything that can facilitate that process ought to occur,” he said.