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Japan is encouraging more countries from Central and South America to join the reworked Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
The region has a combined population of about 600 million and a gross domestic product of around 5.1 trillion dollars.
Mexico, Chile and Peru are part of the TPP, but Brazil and Argentina -- the two giants of the region -- are not. Colombia has already expressed an interest in joining. It is the only member of a four-nation Latin American trade bloc called the Pacific Alliance that is not also a part of the TPP.
Current TPP members are working to ratify the deal. Japan wants to open the door to any interested countries, including the UK, Thailand and South Korea.
The pact would lower tariff rates among member nations, which in turn would make American products less competitive within the bloc.
Japan is also hoping to use the TPP as a way to counter Chinese influence in Central and South America. Japan, as leader, is seeking a path forward for free trade in Asia. This country is now the largest member of TPP. A revived TPP with Japan at the head could dent China’s hegemony in the region.
The pact would boost Japan’s real gross domestic product by 1.11 per cent.
For the past four years, the Indian technical textile market has been growing at a CAGR of 12 per cent. For the next four years, it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent.
Per capita consumption of technical textiles in India is three to four kg as compared to 30 kg or 40 kg per capita in other countries. With a growing economy and rising disposable income, the demand for technical textile products is bound to increase, creating lucrative opportunities for investment.
Incentives are being provided to the tune of 15 per cent on capital investments in the sector. Despite this, the growth of technical textiles in India is not as encouraging as expected.
India still has to import technical textiles and so it is necessary to increase capacity within the country. India can be positioned as a manufacturing hub for technical textiles.
Technical textiles have immense potential and are considered to be the sunrise industry in India. The industry could grow with sufficient investments in technology.
India is expected to play a key role in shaping the technical textiles market with consumers spending more on home textiles, sportswear products, and medical products. India can contribute toward shaping the future of the technical textile sector by diversifying towards nonwovens.
Guess Jeans has teamed up with Round Two's Sean Wotherspoon to release a brightly colored capsule called Farmer's Market, paying tribute to ’80s and ’90s retro streetwear.
Farmer’s Market includes overalls, denim jackets, tees, woven shirts, pullover crew necks and hoodies. Hats, backpacks and hip packs, baggy pants and zip pullovers round out the assortment.
The collection features overdyed and acid-washed fabrics in bright hues like pineapple yellow, avocado green, and grape purple, paying tribute to California's bountiful agricultural economy and Guess' vintage denim and streetwear heritage. Fruit and vegetable colored separates and accessories sport vintage Guess graphics and logos.
In the last quarter, Guess opened 15 directly operated stores in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia and Poland. Another 60 openings are planned this year.
For the 2017-18 financial year, Guess revenues increased eight per cent. In the fourth quarter revenue leapt 18 per cent. Fourth quarter growth was driven by an 18 per cent increase in comparable sales in Europe. The size of its European e-business is expanding fast and it is now close to that of the American region.
The new logistics hub, which will be fully operational by the end of the summer, is expected to improve the group's margins.
For the fourth quarter Grasim’s consolidated net profit dropped 20 per cent. It had posted a net profit of Rs 1,064 crores during the same period of the previous fiscal.
The viscose staple fiber business reported its highest ever sales volume, led by growth in the domestic market with intense market development efforts. The share of domestic sales in overall sales rose to 75 per cent in fiscal ’18 from 69 per cent in fiscal ’17.
The number of Liva tagged garments witnessed a tenfold increase in the last three years. More than 3000 stores across the country are making Liva tagged garments available to customers.
Grasim Industries belongs to the Aditya Birla Group. Grasim has a strong presence in polyester viscose and polyester wool fabric. The domestic over the counter division operates in the formal menswear fabric market by offering ready-to-stitch suiting and shirting.
The VSF business will continue to focus on expanding the market in India by partnering with the textile value chain, achieving better customer connect through the brand Liva and enriching the product mix through a larger share of specialty fiber.
However, the new capacities likely to come on stream in China may impact global VSF prices in the near term.
Garment products dominate across all textile businesses, with sports apparel, textiles for garments and fast fashion topping the growth applications leader board.
This data was collected throughout 2017 at FESPA events and from association members in Europe, Eurasia, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand and South Africa. Respondents include screen print businesses with a focus on textile applications, dedicated textile producers and direct-to-garment businesses.
Digital adoption for textile is slower than in other segments and production is still dominated by analogue processes across all textile-related segments.
Among printers focused on textiles, 56 per cent have made digital investments, and 19 per cent plan to do so in the next two years, aiming to reap the benefits of reduced time to market, customised creative collections, prototyping, and a positive impact on the environment by reducing water and energy consumption.
Production speed is an investment priority for 69 per cent of textile respondents, and 55 per cent want the ability to print directly onto untreated materials. These investments are motivated by brand owner demand for time-sensitive production that delivers supply chain improvements such as waste reduction, optimises response to seasonal peaks and enables local delivery.
Screen and textile printers expect digital’s contribution to textile printing revenues to grow by 12 per cent in the next two years.
The EU is Australia’s third largest trading partner.
EU’s exports to Australia are predominantly manufactured goods while Australia's exports to the EU are dominated by mineral commodities and agricultural products.
The EU is New Zealand’s second largest trading partner after Australia. New Zealand's exports to the EU are largely dominated by agricultural products while EU’s exports to New Zealand are focused on manufactured and industrial goods.
The EU cooperates closely with Australia and New Zealand on economic and trade policy issues in the framework of partnership agreements which were concluded respectively in 2008 and 2017.
The EU also has bilateral agreements with both countries on mutual recognition of some technical certificates which, by reducing the costs of testing and certifying of exports and imports, facilitate trade in industrial products. Although generally limited, trade barriers for some sectors, such as agriculture or textile products, remain quite substantial.
The EU has now opened talks with Australia and New Zealand, with any agreement designed to reduce existing barriers to trade, removing custom duties on goods, and giving better access for services and public procurement in Australia and New Zealand. The sectors likely to benefit the most from the FTAs are motor equipment, machinery, chemicals, processed foods and services.
Global denim manufacturer Wrangler recently joined the Cotton LEADS program.
The brand is committed to promoting soil health practices as a foundation for improving sustainability in the industry. It launched its sustainable cotton program in 2017 and aims to double its use of cotton acquired through the program by 2019.
Most recently, the brand published “Seeding Soil’s Potential.” This overview of 45 scientific reports definitively concludes that the practices of conservation tillage, cover crops and crop rotation result in greater crop resiliency and productivity, among a host of other benefits to the grower and the land.
Roian Atwood, Director-Sustainability, Wrangler,said, “Joining Cotton LEADS is an important step in building Wrangler’s program for sustainable U.S. cotton. Cotton LEADS has deep research on productivity within the industry, and we’re particularly interested in the program’s attention to soil health.”
Vietnam and China see huge potential for cooperation in economy, trade and investment.
China is currently Vietnam’s biggest trade partner, while Vietnam is China’s largest trader in ASEAN. Two-way trade in 2017 was up 30 per cent year-on-year and accounted for 22 per cent of Vietnam’s total import-export turnover.
Vietnam posted a trade deficit of 28 billion dollars with China in 2016. The figure was down to 22.7 billion dollars last year, a positive sign in improving the bilateral trade balance.
Bilateral trade is forecast to exceed 100 billion dollars this year.
In terms of investment, Chinese enterprises are intensifying investment in such fields as garments-textiles and mineral exploitation-processing in Vietnam. Last year, Chinese investors opened 284 new projects and added capital to 83 existing projects in the southeast Asian nation with a total capital of over 12 billion dollars.
With its open trade policy, China welcomes foreign businesses, including those from Vietnam, to bring into full play market opportunities to increase exports of high-value products to the country.
Chinese firms want to seek cooperation opportunities in garment and textiles, seafood and farm produce processing for export.
Bangladesh has become known as a hub of the garment manufacturing industry.
The United States is the second largest market for Bangladesh's readymade garment products.
Countries like Canada and Japan, from outside the EU bloc, also look to Bangladesh as a potential sourcing country for their readymade garment imports.
As a least developed country, Bangladesh enjoys many facilities offered by advanced economies.
One such facility is the GSP offered by the European Union. This scheme makes rooms for the export of Bangladeshi garment products with no or little tariff to EU countries.
Graduation to the group of developing countries is important, but what's more important is the consolidation of the position. Bangladesh made a mistake in depending too much on the WTO route for having market access. A country like Vietnam that liberalised its economy much later than Bangladesh has already negotiated more than a dozen free trade agreements, whereas Bangladesh has not signed a single one.
Unless it becomes a partner with other economies, Bangladesh will not receive the expected investment - be it from within or without.
Bangladesh can and should negotiate its own free trade agreements with trading partners and other interested countries.
Without a growth rate of 7.5 per cent or beyond, it cannot expect to consolidate its position as a developing country within the stipulated time.
Asia Pacific exporters are deeply concerned about a fall in business largely due to an increase in US protectionist measures and their potential for triggering a trade war with Asian countries.
The turnover will decline ten to 20 per cent due to uncertainty over any changes in trade agreements.
The worries come up at a year, 2018, when global GDP growth has been forecast to accelerate to 3.2 per cent – the strongest annual expansion since 2011.
More than half of the suppliers in China are pessimistic about potential export turnover losses due to the introduction of trade barriers such as tariffs or targeted restrictions.
The opinions of Chinese suppliers are shared by those in Indonesia (65 per cent), Taiwan (48 per cent) and Hong Kong (47 per cent). These are all economies with deeply intertwined trade relationships with China.
Suppliers focusing on domestic trade, however, consider the introduction of international trade barriers to be an opportunity for growth.
Despite concerns over the impact of protectionist trends on the Asia Pacific trade outlook, countries in the region are striving to reinforce trade ties with the rest of the world, increasingly turning to Australia for economic and trade cooperation.
This may explain why most Australian suppliers do not expect a negative impact on their businesses’ turnover in the coming months. Japanese suppliers share the same optimistic view.
