Textile and Apparel Imports Growing but Still Down From 2022

Imports of textiles and apparel continued to grow in April but were still down sharply from a year earlier, according to statistics from the Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel.

For more information on trade-related issues affecting textiles and apparel, please contact ST&R’s textile and apparel practice leader Elise Shibles at (415) 490-1403 or via email. 

Overall Imports. Textile and apparel imports totaled 7.90 billion square meter equivalents in April 2023, up 10.6 percent from March but down 22.7 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports totaled 6.12 billion SME, up 17.0 percent for the month but down 18.7 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 1.77 billion SME slipped 4.8 percent from March and were down 34.0 percent from a year before.

Imports of textiles and apparel were 27.6 billion SME for the year to date in April, down 23.8 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports were 20.0 billion SME, down 20.7 percent, while apparel imports fell 31.1 percent to 7.60 billion SME.

For the year ending in April, total imports were down 8.0 percent to 97.2 million SME. Textile imports lost 6.0 percent to 69.5 billion SME while apparel imports fell 12.8 percent to 27.7 billion SME.

Source Countries. OTEXA has reported the following statistics on textile and apparel imports from major source countries for April 2023.

Country	SME	Monthly change %	Annual change %	YE change %
China	2.17 billion	+27.6	-22.6	-21.1
Mexico	809.6 million	+43.9	+116.3	+39.9
Egypt	738.5 million	-1.7	+1210.8	+30.5
India	701.9 million	+11.1	-34.1	-7.9
Czech Rep.	559.8 million	n/a	+227.4	-27.4
Vietnam	438.0 million	+3.5	-36.2	-5.2
Malaysia	357.3 million	+28.0	-43.2	+59.1
Turkey	264.1 million	-29.4	-69.5	+33.9
Pakistan	222.5 million	-11.4	-28.6	-11.4
Bangladesh	199.2 million	-20.5	-42.4	-9.9

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