Textile and Apparel Imports Continue to Fall

Imports of textiles and apparel continued to see year-over-year declines from many traditional suppliers in March, 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 7.14 billion square meter equivalents in March 2023, up 23.5 percent from February but down 23.8 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports totaled 5.23 billion SME, up 33.0 percent for the month but down 15.7 percent from the previous year, while apparel imports of 1.86 billion SME rose 2.8 percent from February but fell 40.1 percent from a year before.

Imports of textiles and apparel were 19.7 billion SME for the year to date in March, down 24.3 percent from a year earlier. Textile imports were 13.9 billion SME, down 21.5 percent, while apparel imports fell 30.1 percent to 5.83 billion SME.

For the year ending in March, total imports were down 2.9 percent to 99.5 million SME. Textile imports lost 0.7 percent to 70.9 billion SME while apparel imports fell 8.1 percent to 28.6 billion SME.

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

Country	SME	Monthly change %	Annual change %	YE change %
China	1.70 billion	-14.1	-40.4	-19.0
Egypt	751.1 million	n/a	+417.2	+5.4
India	631.5 million	+12.8	-25.8	-1.1
Mexico	562.8 million	+106.2	+51.4	+33.4
Vietnam	423.2 million	-2.2	-42.9	+0.6
Turkey	374.0 million	-12.4	-39.3	+61.3
Malaysia	279.2 million	-9.8	-42.6	+127.2
Pakistan	251.1 million	+15.2	-20.4	-7.7
Bangladesh	250.5 million	+20.7	-42.9	-2.7
Indonesia	162.5 million	+5.6	-22.3	+5.4

 

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