Major apparel suppliers experiencing a decline in fashion exports to the US

In less than two weeks, Donald Trump will be sworn in as America's  45th president, and much focus will be placed on his foreign trade policies, as whether, upon assuming duty in the White House, he will practise what he has been preaching throughout his campaign.  And that is to carry out a series of protectionist measures, aimed at promoting the economy and employment in industries in the United States.  His course of actions to "Make America Great Again" will no doubt have various foreseeable consequences for a whole range of industries, including the textile and clothing sector.

According to figures provided by textile fairs organisers Messe Frankfurt France (organisers of Texworld Paris and related trade fairs), major apparel suppliers of textiles and clothing have already been experiencing a decline in fashion exports to the US market.

Texworld Paris is one of the key textile trade fairs in Europe that welcome internatonal visitors,
from all over Europe, US and Asia.

For the first nine months of 2016, US textiles and clothing imports fell by 6.3% slumping down to USD 80 billion. The decline amounted to 5.0% for clothing (USD 61.6 billion) and 10.2% for textiles (USD 18.4 billion).

China remains by far the largest supplier of clothing to the USA, but its share fell from 35.9% to 34.5%. Other Asian suppliers are stagnating or have recorded a poor performance (Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka); Cambodia is experiencing a sharp shrinking.

Overall, ASEAN countries have seen their exports to the US drop by 3.4% for the first nine months of 2016, down to USD 15.3 billion.

Over the same period, suppliers who are members of the NAFTA free trade agreement with the US (Mexico and Canada) have suffered a decline of 6.8%, down to USD 2.9 billion, while other US clothing exporters to the USA experienced contrasting situations: Honduras (-4.1%), El Salvador (+0.6%), and so on.

Texworld Paris will play host to international exhibitors February 6th to 9th 2017
 to be held at the Paris-Le Bourget exhibition centre.

European clothing suppliers are marginalized on the US market. 

For the first nine months of 2016, EU's exports (from 28 member states) fell to USD 1.57 billion, a decline of 4.6% compared to the first 9 months of 2015.

Italy, the largest among them, saw its exports fall by 6% to USD 869 million.  Other major European suppliers for the first nine months of 2016 were Portugal (USD 149 million or +12%), France (USD 109 million, - 9%) and Great Britain (USD 83 million USD, -16%).

Exports of textiles (fabrics, yarn, etc.) from the EU to the USA reached, for the first nine months, USD 1.47 billion, USD 396 million of which were for Italy (-10%), USD 254 million for Germany (+ 1%) and USD 101 million for France (-15%).

Thanks to its QIZ free trade agreement with the United States, Jordan ranked 12th among US apparel suppliers (USD 975 million for the first nine months of 2016, + 2% ). Other major Mediterranean suppliers during this period were Egypt (USD 542 million, -17%), Turkey (USD 360 million, + 6%), Morocco (USD 98 million, + 8%) and Tunisia (USD 46 million, -16%).

Turkey is also a major supplier of textiles (USD 799 million in 2015 and USD 625 million for the first nine months of 2016) and, to a lesser extent, Egypt (USD 181 million in 2015 and USD 131 million for the first 9 months of 2016).

It should also be noted that sub-Saharan African countries saw their exports increase by 2% to USD 764 million in the first 9 months of 2016. The most important of these are Kenya, Lesotho and Mauritius.