The United States imposed tariffs on Chinese textiles, resulting in a significant decline in China’s share of the U.S. textile market and a significant reduction in export orders.
Under the pressure of increasingly fierce global competition, the U.S. has introduced a series of policies and regulations to support the development of the textile and apparel industry in trade, taxation and regulation, and the textile and apparel industry has made positive structural adjustments.
The U.S. has moved high-cost, low-margin products or industrial chains abroad, leaving capital and technology-intensive, high-value-added products and industrial chains at domestic level.
In particular, it has strong competitive advantages in high-end specialty yarns, high-grade fabrics, technical textiles and high-value-added, self-branded apparel industry. Thanks to productivity, flexibility and innovation, the U.S. textile industry maintains its position as a global market leader.
U.S. Yarn Industry Prefers Nearer Origin
U.S. textile and apparel imports decline in 2020, driven by domestic demand, but rebound sharply in 2021.
U.S. production and exports of textiles and apparel also rebound during this period. In the global textile trade, the U.S. has been the largest market for world textile consumption. The U.S. has become a must-have textile export market for developing countries with labor-intensive textile and apparel industries as their leading industries.
Textile and apparel trade balance report shows the textile and apparel trade balance between U.S. and the global and selected trading partnersin the past three years.
The report shows that the U.S. imported $130.779 billion in textiles and apparel from the world in 2021, an increase of 8.77 percent from the previous year. Among them, $39.899 billion in imports from China, down 15.19%; 2021 U.S. textile and apparel exports to the world $22.653 billion, up 17.19%. Among them, exports to China $ 848 million, an increase of 5.57% year-on-year.
The epidemic has brought many changes to the U.S. textile industry: origin closer to markets; more flexible supply; smaller, cheaper and more durable products; less correlation with the seasons; more focus on sustainability, etc.
A McKinsey & Company survey of chief sourcing managers of 38 apparel companies showed that 71 percent plan to increase their share of nearshore outsourcing. For U.S. companies, Central America ranks highest in future nearshore outsourcing activity. About 80 percent of North American apparel companies plan to increase their share of sourcing in the region.
U.S. tariff hike, Chinese yarn market share drops significantly
Recently, calls for relief from tariff hikes on China have resurfaced in the United States.
In 2017, all U.S. apparel imports were US$105.9 billion, of which US$38.6 billion were imported from China. China accounted for 33.67% of the import share and was affiliated with the No.1 market for U.S. imports.
However, after the change in economic and trade relations between China and the United States, the United States began to guide the market to reduce its dependence on Chinese textiles and apparel, and the share of textile and apparel imports from China declined significantly in the following years.
India and Southeast Asian countries grabbed the U.S. yarn market significantly.
In 2017, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh’s market share in the U.S. was 8%, 11% and 7%, respectively; in January-March 2022, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh’s market share in the U.S. textile and apparel rose to 10%, 13% and 11%. Bangladesh, in particular, has increased significantly by 4% points in the last three years or so.
The U.S. tariff increase on Chinese textiles has led to a significant decline in China’s share of the U.S. textile market. The recent year China’s overseas textile and apparel orders to Southeast Asian countries and India, Bangladesh and other countries is very obvious, China’s export orders significantly reduced, the downstream consumption is affected.
Some industry insiders believe that in the high inflation environment, maintaining the tariffs imposed on China will drive up prices, which is not conducive to the U.S. economic recovery. If the reduction of tariffs imposed on China, there is no doubt that there are some benefits, after all, foreign trade is still a major means of prosperity of the textile industry.
In recent years, the highly automated and environmentally friendly textile industry began to return to the United States, technological innovation has also brought great changes to the textile industry’s production methods.
