According to the Commerce Department data, apparel imports to the US grew by 1.8 percent in April compared to the same month last year, to $6.9 billion, a billion dollars less than in March. The increase greatly outpaced that of overall imports, which fell by 6 percent in the month to $190 billion.

The biggest driver of the overall decrease in imports was a steep decline in the value of consumer goods, by $4.9 billion, representing two-thirds of the total good imports decline. On a 12-month smoothed basis, which corrects for volatility of data in a particular month, apparel import growth was 3.1 percent in April, slightly less than March.

China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India are the top five providers of US imported apparel so far this year, though Indonesia has seen its apparel exports to the US drop in the first four months of the year compared to 2014. Apparel exports continued to outperform the total export market, however, increasing by 7 percent compared to last April, to $580 million. Overall exports of goods and services dropped by 4.5 percent in the month, hurt by the strength of the dollar. On a 12-month smoothed basis, however, apparel exports were flat.

Canada emerged the biggest importer of US apparel so far this year, comprising more than one-third of exports, followed by Mexico, the U.K., Japan and El Salvador.

www.commerce.gov