FW
The World Trade Organisation has issued new expanded editions of two of its annual statistical publications, Trade Profiles and World Tariff Profiles.
The revamped Trade Profiles provides a series of key indicators on trade in goods and services for 195 economies. For each economy, the data is presented in a handy two-page format, providing a concise overview of global trade. The profiles begin with a snapshot of the importance of trade for each economy — indicating its world ranking for trade in both goods and commercial services.
For trade in goods, data is provided by product category along with the major origins and destinations for these products. Also listed are the most exported and imported goods for each economy. For trade in commercial services, data is broken down by services category, major origins and destinations, foreign affiliates statistics and foreign direct investment in services.
World Trade Profiles has been expanded to provide information on tariff and non-tariff measures imposed by over 170 economies. The publication starts with summary tables showing the average tariffs imposed by each economy. This is followed by individual one-page profiles, providing a more detailed breakdown of tariffs. The profiles display the tariffs each economy imposes on its imports as well as the tariffs it faces for exports to major trading partners. A new section covers the use of non-tariff measures, which are becoming increasingly important in international trade.
The cash crunch triggered by the sudden withdrawal of high-value currency notes has crippled the economy of Tirupur that depends on thousands of labourers who earn their wages in cash. So much so that the year-end that is normally a cheerful time in Tirupur when holiday orders pour in from the US and Europe is now in a gloom.
As M P Muthurathinam, Owner of Rooban Clothing says he is currently working with 10 workers of the 90 he deploys. This is because the rest of the workforce have either gone on leave or have left jobs due to the cash crunch. Muthurathinam is not able to pay them.
His main worry now is that his clients may cancel a chunk of his export orders since he won’t be able to deliver the goods on time. Generally, November and December are happy months as good business orders flow materialise due to the Christmas and New Year season abroad.
The textiles cluster of Tirupur employs some 500,000 people directly and does an annual business worth Rs 40,000 crore. While Rs 25,000 crore comes from exports, the rest comes from the domestic business. The textiles belt, often referred to as the Manchester of south India, has remained to be crippled over the past 15 days and its impact will be felt for at least three to four quarters, factory owners and their association believe disputing claims that the pain will be short-lived.
Upbeat on the domestic textile sector, the Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) is looking to export textiles products worth around $500 million to India in the next five years. According to Sean Tsai of Taiwan Textile Federation Overseas Market Development, India is a very dynamic market with lot of potential and scope for Taiwanese companies. The focus of Taiwan is to tap new business opportunities in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where there is huge demand for innovative knit and woven textile products like synthetic, fancy, functional etc as well as garment accessories. Tsai was talking on the sidelines of a buyer-seller meet in Mumbai.
He further said Taiwan’s main aim was to export around $500 million worth of functional textiles in the next five years to India. This can be seen by the bilateral trade between the two countries that has grown from $1.19 billion in 2001 to $6 billion in 2014. For over 10 years, the TTF had been organising buyer-seller meets in India and has been quite successful in connecting and supplying innovative and trendy textiles to the leading fashion garment exporters' as well domestic brands in India.
Organised by the TTF and the Bureau of Foreign Trade and represented by Worldex India Exhibition & Promotion, Taiwan Textile Fair showcased Taiwan's innovative and value-added yarns, fabrics, trimmings and clothing accessories were displayed to apparel exporters, fashion brands and labels, retailers, importers, distributors based in Mumbai. Taiwanese textile industry is known in the world for its innovative and high-quality products and are sourced by leading global brands for sports and active wear, outdoor wear, functional wear, formal wear, suiting and shirting by leading global brands such as such as DKNY, S. Oliver, C&A, Victoria's Secret, GAP, Nike, Adidas, Calvin Klein, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Tescouk, Tommy Hilfiger among others.
Spanish textile companies would like to have their supplies from nearby Tunisia rather than from China or Bangladesh. These companies happen to be those that are active in areas like ready-to-wear, denim, lingerie, bathing suits and sportswear. To forge contacts with suppliers, they are visiting Tunisian textile and clothing factories.
The textile and clothing industry in Tunisia plays a critical role in the socio-economic development of the country as it accounts for more than 40 per cent of industrial employment. The industry provides jobs for an estimated 2,00,000 workers, 75 per cent of which are women.
Tunisia is looking to strengthen and improve its value chain and diversify its product offering. EU countries are the main customers of Tunisia for textiles with 36 per cent for France, 32 per cent in Italy, 10 per cent in Germany; followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain.
Tunisia is among the top 15 garment suppliers in the world, and has the advantage of being close to the European market. It is the fifth largest supplier to the European Union as well as the leading trouser supplier to the EU. Other important products are work wear and lingerie. The main foreign investors in the apparel sector in Tunisia are France, Germany, Belgium and Italy.
Many Chinese companies like Texhong Textile, Luthai Textile, Bros Eastern and Huafu have built textile plants in Vietnam. By the end of 2015, Texhong Textile had around 2.2 million spindles and 572 sets of looms. Texhong’s yarn capacity is expected to rise 28 per cent to touch 2.81 million spindles in 2016 including 1.57 million spindles in China and 1.24 million spindles in Vietnam.
The first phase of Luthai Textile in Vietnam covering 10 million meters of yarn-dyed fabric started production in August 2016 and the rest covering 20 million meters is scheduled to begin batch production in mid-2017.
The project of Bros Eastern in Vietnam covering three stages is scheduled to start complete operation by the end of 2016, and Phase I and II have started production. The spinning capacity of Bros Eastern in Vietnam is expected to be around 0.5 million spindles by the end of 2016.
Huafu Top Dyed Melange Yarn owned more than 30 companies plants in 2015, with a total capacity of 1.35 million spindles including around 0.12 million spindles in Vietnam. Huafu intends to expand by 0.08 million spindles in Vietnam annually in the next two years. The spinning capacity is expected to reach 0.28 million spindles by the end of 2017.
Based on current market supply and demand condition and market operation status, China state cotton reserves will not be arranged during the period when new cotton comes into the market (till end February 2017), says the a news released by National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, China.
Moreover, state cotton reserves sales of 2017 will begin from March 6, till August end. In principle, the daily selling volumes will be 30,000 tons, but if domestic and international cotton prices go up during a period and more than 70 per cent of reserved cotton is sold per day for three days in a week, the daily selling volumes can be added and the selling time can be extended, it has been noted.
Pakistan’s continued aggression has led to suspension of imports of cotton from India though unannounced. Sources in the textile sector say high officials of the plant protection department that works under federal ministry of food security have issued verbal orders to the staff to stop issuing permits of import of cotton. The issuance of import permits from India has been suspended for three days.
Sources claimed many textile exporting manufacturers import cotton as well as chemical dyes from India in heavy quantities. Import of cotton without proper permit has been banned. Some importers were importing cotton without permit. This facility has been cancelled after recent tensions with India.
Last month, traders from Gujarat decided to stop supplying vegetables especially tomatoes and chilli to Pakistan, it is understood. Ahmedabad General Commission Agent Association general secretary Ahmed Patel claimed that Gujarat used to send 50 trucks with 10 tons of vegetables, mainly tomatoes and chillies to Pakistan from the Wagah border but this has been stopped since the last two days considering the tension between the two countries. This happens to be the first time in almost two decades that Gujarat traders decided to stop supply of essential vegetables to Pakistan, he said.
The Alliance has rejected reports of four global rights groups saying that in several areas, it misrepresented and oversimplified the complexities of the western retailers' platforms including efforts of the Accord to improve worker safety in Bangladesh. Observed Ellen O'Kane Tauscher, Independent Chair of Alliance, in a statement that the Alliance stands by its progress which is validated by an accomplished team of on-the-ground engineers and professional staff and Alliance remains committed to its mission of creating a safer environment for millions of workers that make a living in Bangladeshi factories.
The Accord has never raised any of the issues contained in this report. While some may seek to set up a false sense of competition between the two organizations (Alliance and Accord), Alliance continues to work closely together on the ground to advance factory safety on behalf of millions of garment workers in Bangladesh, she added.
Tauscher’s statement came one day after four global rights groups' allegation that the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety has overplayed progress with rosy status reports while workers' lives remain at risk. The rights groups, namely, International Labour Rights Forum, Worker Rights Consortium, Clean Clothes Campaign and Maquila Solidarity Network prepared the report based on 175 factories which supply apparels to one or more of these five Alliance member-corporations-Walmart, Gap, Target, Hudson Bay and VF Corporation and for which the Accord publishes detailed progress reports.
The Alliance and its member-companies share the same ultimate goal as that of The Accord in creating a safer future for garment workers of Bangladesh, she said. The Alliance remains committed to working collaboratively with the Accord, the National Action Plan and other key stakeholders to achieve this goal over the next 18 months, she reiterated.
With sustainability becoming the buzzword apparel brands looking to make lesser impact on the environment now have access to more material data to help them reach sustainability goals. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), an industry-wide group working to reduce the environmental and social impacts of products around the world, released a new and improved version of its Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI) where TENCEL® fabric scored better than around 70 per cent of textiles measured.
Originally developed by Nike, the scoring tool was adopted by the SAC in 2012. The body has since updated the methodology, technology and data to create an easy-to-use public tool that measures and communicates the environmental impact of thousands of materials used in creating apparel, footwear and home textile products. The Higg MSI’s purpose is to provide information about materials and their impacts from extraction through manufacturing in a user-friendly way, creating a benchmark and allowing design teams and supply chain partners to pick less harmful options during design and development. It uses a common language around materials for simplified communication.
TENCEL® fabric, made from the Lenzing branded fiber product of the same name (its generic name is Lyocell), scored 34 on the Higg MSI. By comparison with other fiber materials combined with their default fabric production and dyeing and finishing, a hypothetic unbranded (generic) Lyocell fabric receives 44, silk receives 128 and cotton gets 88. Lyocell’s score is based primarily on data Lenzing submitted to show how TENCEL® ranked versus other commonly used fibers. The score, however, does not represent any specific producer.
Oman wants to invest in Bangladesh. Prospective sectors include leather, jute, furniture, handicrafts and others. Oman, an Islamic country, sees many similarities with Bangladesh.
Bangladesh mainly exports agricultural and engineering products, footwear, frozen foods, plastic goods, jute and jute goods to Oman while it imports rubber, mineral products, chemical and textiles.
Cooperation in agriculture and fisheries is another prospective area where both the parties are working together. Another is the energy sector. Bangladesh is seeking investment from Middle Eastern countries in different sectors. Oman has a lot of cash and is looking for good investment destinations. So if Bangladesh provides a favorable regime for Middle Eastern investment, it will ultimately help the country to create more employment opportunities and to grow more.
The United States is currently facing sluggish growth while the Euro zone is reeling under a debt crisis. These two are the biggest destinations of Bangladesh’s export items and also the country gets most of its foreign investment from these regions. Due to the bad conditions in those countries, Bangladesh’s export growth is slowing down while foreign investment is drying up. In this backdrop, the future for Bangladesh is the Middle East.
