FW
Nigeria will host the Africa Fashion Reception in Abuja from July 3 to 5 following the consideration of its bid by the World Fashion Organisation ahead of five other African nations, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Uganda. The event will be organised by Branzuk Gold, which is the franchise holder in the country.
The decision was made in Paris last year. Nigeria is a member of the 115 nations that constitute the World Fashion Organisation. It became a member of the body five years ago. The Africa Fashion Reception is three days of fashion shows and exhibitions for fashion designers and accessory producers from all over the continent. Forty African countries will participate at the event to celebrate cultural diversity with the theme Africa is the New Inspiration of Global Capital. Only one top designer will be selected to represent each of the participating African countries.
Nigeria is a leading exponent of fashion in Africa. Nigerian designers are redefining fashion globally as their works are now seen in some of the most luxurious stores across the world. The World Fashion Organisation is looking to establish a garment industry in addition to a University of Fashion in Nigeria.
africafashionreception.com/
Cashmere World 2014 will be held September 25 to 27, 2014, Hong Kong. This is the only integrated trade event dedicated to cashmere and fine fibers which covers the whole supply chain of the cashmere sector – from the herds grazing on the high Mongolian plateau through to the combing and processing of raw cashmere into the yarn that makes sweaters. This year the fair has broadened its scope to embrace fine fibers.
Cashmere World is a fashion event and it is being held concurrently with Fashion Access, Asia’s leading fair for head-to-toe fashion. Also planned at this year’s fair is the Cashmere World Forum, which will provide a platform for industry leaders and experts to exchange ideas on the latest topics in the cashmere and fine fibers industry.
Cashmere World is a vertically integrated business platform for the international cashmere trade. It is a high-standard, annual meeting place for business, catalysing fashion trends and technology innovation that make cashmere one of the world’s most loved luxury materials. Cashmere is often combined with other luxurious fibers such as silk and superfine merino wool to create hybrid garments and sweaters.
www.cashmereworldfair.com ›
Bangladesh's export earnings from apparel products during July-May fiscal year 2013-14 grew by more than 14 per cent over the corresponding time of last fiscal. Export receipts from apparels, including knit and woven items, stood at $22.17 billion during the first 11 months of the outgoing fiscal up from $19.31 billion in the corresponding period of the last financial year.
Export earnings from apparel products are expected to reach $24.75 billion at the end of current fiscal. Knit products showed a 16.28 per cent growth. Woven products showed a 13.46 per cent growth. If the same trends continue in the next fiscal, the country expects a lot more investment from entrepreneurs to come in. However, export of jute and jute products witnessed negative growth during the period. Earnings from leather, leather goods grew by 29 per cent.
However, apparel exports are facing numerous problems as buyers are not increasing products' prices. Many factories have closed due to western retailers' assessment programs tremendous competition from competiting countries.
Pakistan's budget for 2014-15 has raised customs duty from five to 15 per cent on import of different kinds of dyes, including sulphur dyes, vat dyes, disperse dyes and solvent dyes. A five to ten per cent duty on white oil has been imposed, with a one percent duty on indigo blue and basic dyes used by the local chemicals industry and commercial importers. The Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association wants the removal of these anomalies from the budget particularly, the sudden jump in customs tariff on import of dyes from 5 to 15 per cent. The association has informed the finance minister that this abrupt increase will hurt export-oriented textile industries. The addition to manufacturing cost will hit the industry’s competitiveness in the international market.
The association says white oil is routinely smuggled through Iran. If the duty were to be increased to 10 per cent and not reduced to 5 per cent, smuggling would increase and the national exchequer would suffer huge losses in terms of customs duty, sales tax and other levies.
The budget imposes a difference of 15 per cent sales tax applicable on the same goods. It is feared this would create a huge opportunity for dishonest and fraudulent elements to show excessive consumption in units which enjoy a 2 per cent tax rate facility, thereby pushing honest commercial importers completely out of business.
Bangladesh commerce minister Tofail Ahmed has urged the US to allow duty-free and quota-free access of Bangladesh apparels to its market. The aim is to boost bilateral trade between the two countries.
The commerce minister held separate meetings with US Trade Representative Michael Froman, Congressman Sandy Levin, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Catherine A Novelli, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal and various retailers' associations.
During the meeting he informed the US officials of the progress made in the readymade garment sector in accordance with the US Action Plan for regaining the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility in the US market. Bangladesh hopes to get back the GSP facility in the US market soon as the country feels it has made much progress in the readymade garment sector.
Ahmed praised the sincere cooperation of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), International Labor Organisation (ILO), Alliance, Accord, the US and the western countries for putting the country’s apparel sector on a strong footing. He highlighted the ongoing efforts for diversifying the export items and destinations for Bangladeshi products.
The Dominican Association of Textile Industries has asked the Directorate General of Customs to investigate the large volume of goods sold in the country with ‘Made in America’ labels. There is a suspicion that the items alleged to be imported from the US may have its origin in non-NAFTA countries, because these goods have very competitive prices even though the cost of production is higher in the US. So many goods may have been manufactured in a third country with Made in America labels placed on them.
By putting labels of American origin, goods from other nations that are not part of the free trade agreement they get away without paying any tax, decrease customs’ revenue and also affect the Dominican garment manufacturing companies. Textiles and garments brought from the US or any other country with which the Dominican Republic has a free trade agreement are not subjected to taxes, but if they come from any other country with which the Dominican Republic does not have a free trade agreement, the goods are subjected to a 20 per cent tariff and 18 per cent sales tax.
The country’s textile and apparel industry comprises over 2,000 production units, including micro, small and medium enterprises in both formal and informal sectors, which employ more than 20,000 people.
The Bangladesh government is in a dilemma over making its inspection reports on readymade garment factories public. Reason: it wants to scrutinise the necessary legal and procedural aspects. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has called upon the government to disclose the findings of ongoing apparel factory safety inspections.
In July 2013, Bangladesh, the EU, and the ILO agreed to a contract on labor rights and factory safety, which the US government later joined, to create a publicly accessible database listing all readymade garment and knitwear factories as a platform for reporting labor, fire and building safety inspections. The database would include information on factories and their locations, their owners, the results of inspections regarding complaints of anti-union discrimination and unfair labor practices, fines and sanctions administered, as well as remedial actions taken, if any.
The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has already inspected about 250 garment units but till date no reports have been published. On the other hand, Accord, an European Union-based initiative by more than 150 global apparel companies, brands, retailers and trade unions, and Alliance, another North American retailers' platform, have already made some of their assessment reports public on their respective websites. They are also in the process of uploading more reports in the coming days.
Experts say that the ready-made garments sector (RMG) in Bangladesh would miss the projected export earnings target of $34.20 billion for the upcoming fiscal year 2014-15. Experts opine that a 11 per cent rise in the earnings over the current fiscal year's export target of $30.50 billion is way above a logical and achievable forecast.
Keeping the impact of fire and building collapse tragedies that claimed several lives last year, about 200 factories have stopped operations owing to various reasons like political violence, failure to meet compliance requirements and ongoing factory assessment. Many more factories may be closed due to the ongoing inspection programs of the global brands and the government.
There is also a considerable drop in export orders with regular and major importing companies refusing to place orders with units located in shared or rented buildings. Meanwhile, production cost has gone up significantly following the recent wage hike of workers and additional costs to meet safety requirements. The inspection programs being carried out by Accord, Alliance and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) are expected to end in December this year. A large number of factories will be relocated and the reforms would take at least another two years.
Experts feel that till all the changes and improvements take place, achieving the target for the next fiscal doesn’t look possible. Besides, they also pointed out that the incentive packages provided to export sectors are not responsive enough to overcome the impact of the Euro Zone economic crisis.
Exports of non-knitted apparels and clothing accessories from Indonesia has increased marginally by 1.78 per cent in the first four months of the current year, compared to the corresponding period of last year. In April 2014, Indonesia’s exports of non-knitted apparel and accessories showed an increase of 7.07 per cent over exports made in March 2014. Non-knitted garments and apparel accessories exports accounted for a 2.82 per cent share in Indonesia’s non-oil and gas exports during January to April 2014.
Indonesia’s cotton imports increased by 2.66 per cent year-on-year in January to April 2014 compared to imports made during the same period of last year. However, on a month-on-month basis, Indonesia’s cotton imports surged by 46.71 per cent in April 2014. In 2013, Indonesia’s textile and apparel exports increased by 1.76 per cent year-on-year with the US, Japan and Turkey being the main markets. Of this, garment exports accounted for 58.2 per cent.
For the current year, the Indonesian Textile Association has set textile and clothing export targets about 4.88 per cent higher than last year. The textile and clothing industry is a strategic sector that makes a significant contribution to Indonesia’s economy in the form of providing employment as well as earning foreign exchange. In recent years, the garment sector has become one of the highest foreign exchange earning sectors for the country.
More than 140 participants from the industry, research, European institutions and international organisations came together in Brussels recently to join the International Textile and Clothing Conference on ‘Free Trade and International Agreements’.
The 15 distinguished speakers from different countries and institutions made a valuable contribution to the discussion on the way textile and clothing markets have changed in the last 20 years and on the impact of the numerous free trade agreements signed across the world. Trends confirm that European companies have managed to maintain their overall position by changing their competitiveness paradigm and by favoring a competitiveness based on products with high added-value and non-price competitiveness content. Nevertheless, to maintain such a model, it is also important to strengthen the European industrial policy that should also benefit textile and clothing.
The EU’s free trade agreements currently in place absorb more than 44 per cent of the 42.2 billion of textile and clothing products exported world-wide. Globally the industry prefers multilateral trade liberalization since it is the best way to reduce costs of doing business but the second-best choice remains the free trade agreements provided they do not create a new labyrinth of rules. India felt the free trade agreement with the EU was a chance to improve the competitiveness of the Indian industry.
