China Cotton Textile Association

After Fed increased interest rate on Mar 21, US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Mar 22 which could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imported products from China. In addition, US will restrict China’s enterprises to invest and conduct M&A (merge and acquisition) in US. As soon as the news released, a heated discussion appeared on the market. In terms of textile and apparel industry, US is the traditional export market of China’s textile and apparel, but the exports to EU, Japan and ASEAN cannot be neglected.

I. Exports of China’s textile and apparel to US account for nearly 17% of total.

Export value of China’s textile and apparel totaled $268.6 billion in 2017, including 45.4 billion from US which accounted for 16.9% of total exports.

EU stands as the largest export market of China’s textile and apparel for nearly ten years, but in recent years, its share slid somewhat to 18.2% in 2017. On the contrary, US shared more, up to 16.9% in 2017. Before 2012 Japan kept the third largest export market of China’s textile and apparel, followed by ASEAN, while after 2012, ASEAN surpassed Japan and its share moved up to 12.9% in 2017 from 6% in 2008, and Japan’s fell to 7.6% from 12.8% in 2009. If textile and apparel industry is involved in trade war, the export will be significantly impacted.

From above chart, China’s textile and apparel imports from US take up only around 3% of total and keep stable for years, while the imports from ASEAN surged to 23.9% in 2017, from Japan decline and from EU inch up.

II. Imports from China accounts for nearly a half on US textile and apparel market.

China dominates imports of US textile and apparel with a share of 48.9% in 2017. The second largest import origin is ASEAN with a share of 12.9%. However, exports of US textile and apparel to China account for much less.

In 2017, export value of US textile and apparel amounted to $22.67 billion and import one totaled $105.99 billion. Exports of US textile and apparel to China accounted for 4.2% of total in 2017.

In conclusion, US takes up nearly 17% of China’s textile and apparel exports while China accounts for nearly 50% in US textile and apparel imports. It indicates that US has higher import dependency on China’s textile and apparel.