Background

The Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel reports that monthly imports of cotton, wool, manmade fiber, silk blend, and non-cotton vegetable fiber textile and apparel products totaled 4.01 billion square meter equivalents in April 2020, down 4.3 percent from March and 23.6 percent from April 2019. Textile imports totaled 2.80 billion SME, up 12.0 percent for the month but down 12.8 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 1.21 billion SME were down 28.4 percent from March and 40.5 percent from a year before.

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Overall Imports. Total year-to-date imports were 18.7 billion SME, down 13.8 percent from the previous year, as textile imports fell 10.6 percent to 11.5 billion SME and apparel imports fell 18.4 percent to 7.23 billion SME.

For the year ending in April, imports were 66.8 billion SME, down 4.1 percent from a year earlier, as textile imports fell 1.8 percent to 40.7 billion SME and apparel imports fell 7.4 percent to 26.1 billion SME.

Source Countries. OTEXA has reported the following statistics on textile and apparel imports from major source countries for April 2020.

 

SME

Monthly change %

Annual change %

$ Value

Monthly change %

Annual change %

China

1.47 billion

+56.5

-32.0

$1.19 billion

+29.3

-50.0

India

436.7 million

-17.0

-17.0

$485.0 million

-31.5

-33.0

Vietnam

365.5 million

-11.5

-13.0

$879.5 million

-19.3

-19.0

Pakistan

230.1 million

-6.7

+2.4

$220.3 million

-12.0

-10.0

Bangladesh

181.6 million

-22.5

-11.0

$418.6 million

-23.1

-14.0

Mexico

140.9 million

-38.4

-36.0

$127.5 million

-61.8

-66.0

Korea

157.6 million

-21.3

-9.6

$66.6 million

-19.2

-16.0

Indonesia

141.4 million

+1.9

+1.9

$322.4 million

-18.1

-19.0

Cambodia

95.9 million

-24.4

+0.5

$230.1 million

-19.8

+3.5

Canada

59.9 million

-32.8

-22.0

$45.2 million

-49.2

-49.0

Germany

64.5 million

n/a

+4.3

$41.8 million

n/a

-10.0

Turkey

75.7 million

n/a

+1.4

$121.5 million

n/a

-18.0

Taiwan

65.6 million

+7.4

-14.0

$40.8 million

-3.8

-14.0

Honduras

75.3 million

-10.0

-17.0

$192.4 million

-13.9

-20.0

El Salvador

61.1 million

-1.3

-17.0

$148.4 million

-5.4

-8.2

Of particular note is the performance of imports from the CAFTA-DR countries, with which the U.S. has a free trade agreement, in April compared to a year earlier.

- Costa Rica: 74 percent decline in volume, 63 percent decline in value

- Dominican Republic: 79 percent decline in volume, 88 percent decline in value

- El Salvador: 89 percent decline in volume, 91 percent decline in value

- Guatemala: 57 percent decline in volume, 63 percent decline in value

- Honduras: 91 percent decline in volume, 92 percent decline in value

- Nicaragua: 53 percent decline in volume, 53 percent decline in value

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Elise Shibles
Partner, Advisory Committee; Textiles & Apparel Practice Leader; Forced Labor Practice Leader

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