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Textile manufacturers in the US have urged the Obama administration not to grant China, market economy status stating that Beijing's trade practices especially in the textile supply chain, invariably leads to dumping of goods in other countries.
As per Augustine Tantillo, President and CEO of The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), China's chronic misallocation of investment to expand its state-owned enterprises in the textile supply chain and in other industrial sectors where there is an excess of global capacity, invariably leads to Chinese dumping and other non-free-market economic practices.
These actions that hurt the global economy must not be rewarded by the United States, Tantillo cautioned citing reports that even the WTO had commented that China's market reforms, since joining the WTO, have fallen short of expectations.
At present, the U.S. Commerce Department treats China as a non-market economy when calculating anti-dumping margins and other trade remedies. Interestingly, China is seeking a formal designation as a market economy from December 11 this year that happens to be the 15th anniversary of the country's accession to WTO.
Director of the British Council in India, Alan Gemmell OBE has heaped praises on Andhra Pradesh. Director of the British Council in India, Alan Gemmell OBE has heaped praises on Andhra Pradesh.
According to him, Andhra Pradesh was like a new-born baby but it has the power of its people and a very determined Chief Minister who is both innovative and entrepreneurial.
To him, his country was keen of entering into partnership programmes in traditional textile and educational relationship, besides a few other areas in the State, He was in the city yesterday as part of his introduction visit to the southern States where the British Council can collaborate on wide-ranging issues.
Accompanied by Andrew McAllister, Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission, Hyderabad, and a few other officials, Gammell opened up before the media and briefed them that the Council was looking at business in a range of sectors like agriculture, health and especially education.
Referring to his scheduled meeting with the Higher Education Minister and the Vice-Chancellors of Universities in the State, he pointed to the tie-up with over 30 British Universities in a range of areas. Training of English teachers in Government schools is yet another project the U.K. Government implements in India.
SVP Global Ventures has commissioned a one lakh spindle textile plant in Rajasthan. The capacity will increase to two lakh spindles as the new plant will produce high quality compact yarn of count 20 to 60.
The fully automated plant has a manufacturing capacity of 22,000 tons a year. The first phase of the project will employ 500 people and provide a stable source of livelihood to over 30,000 farmers. Funds for the expansion are being generated through a combination of debt, internal accruals and promoter infusion of equity.
The plant will manufacture combed compact yarn which will be exported to many countries, including China, and commands a premium in the market. The compact yarn is also low on hairiness, has higher strength and elongation, less fiber fly, and has significant advantages in downstream processing. So the project will generate higher margins as compared to other spinning mills.
As part of the package provided by Rajasthan, SVP has derived significant advantages like interest subsidy, VAT benefits and electricity duty rebate.
SVP Global Ventures is a diversified yarn manufacturing company. Headquartered in Mumbai, SVP owns three units in Tamil Nadu-- Coimbatore, Palani, and Madurai--for manufacturing polyester and cotton blended yarn. Manufacturing facility is fungible between specialized cotton, polyester and blended yarns.
This year South African retail sales are better than expected.
Despite the positive growth which is expected in the country, South Africa’s economic climate remains subdued with consumers continuing to face constraints on their disposable incomes.
These constraints stem from factors such as rising inflation, volatility in the labor market, extended periods of drought, the falling exchange value of the South African rand and rising utility costs. As a result, retailers continued to review their strategies in order to remain competitive and accommodate cash-strapped consumers. These strategies include multi-channel approaches and diversifying the ranges of products and services on offer. Growth is also expected to be driven by emerging channels such as grocery retailers and internet retailing.
Rising economic pressures continue to contribute to the increasing consumer debt to income ratio in South Africa. As a result of this, consumer confidence remains weak. Due to weak consumer confidence, current value growth is slow for many retailers.
Consumers continue to make use of credit facilities in order to survive. The resultant high levels of borrowing at high interest rates have led to increasing debt levels, with value sales of largely credit-based retailers such as homeware and home furnishing stores taking a beating.
Shu Yang of Penn Engineering and Randall Kamien of the School of Arts & Sciences are teaming up with a researcher at Drexel to make a new kind of wearable health tracking device that gathers information from its wearer through his or her sweat.
This Penn-Drexel collaboration aims to develop a garment, knitted out of smart yarn that will chemically analyze the wearer’s sweat. A student in the Yang Lab, Weerapha Panatdasirisuk has already hand-knit the first strands of the team’s nanoscale yarn into braids.
What if everything ‘smart’ about your smartwatch was in the band? This is what Shu, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and Randall, the Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Sciences in the School of Arts & Sciences (SAS), intend to find out.
The researchers are teaming up with Genevieve Dion, director of the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Lab at Drexel University, with the goal of making a new kind of wearable health tracking device: where the “smarts” are embedded in the fabric itself.
The team recently received a $100,000 grant from the Keck Futures Initiative, a project of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that supports forward-thinking, highly interdisciplinary collaboration to develop a garment that gathers health information from its wearer through his or her sweat. They plan to achieve this by spinning nanotechnology-inspired yarn that can be knitted like its conventional counterparts.
Instead of absorbing the sweat, the team’s yarn will be able to chemically analyze its contents and change color of the garment accordingly.
Wearable technology requires materials that are both flexible and functional so that developers often look to polymers or to make harder materials as thin as possible.
The government has informed that it has started the process of setting up a national committee to coordinate and implement the WTO's trade facilitation agreement (TFA). The cabinet has approved the constitution of the national committee on trade facilitation (NCTF) under the chairmanship of the cabinet secretary.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the committee will facilitate the ease of doing trade through effective cooperation between custom authorities and relevant stakeholders she also said that through TFA, WTO members are encouraged to share information on best practices in managing customs compliance. TFA will lead to simplification of trade procedures and help promote cross-border trade, bring greater predictability to traders and reduce transaction costs.
The minister also said that the government has taken various steps to track the trade restrictive measures of other countries through various mechanisms such as regular interaction, organizing workshops on important issues like standards and monitoring of draft notifications of member countries.
At the WTO ministerial conference held at Nairobi in December 2015, some members wished to identify and discuss issues other than the remaining issue in the Doha Development Agenda and mostly developing country members did not agree. There it was agreed that any decision to launch negotiations multilaterally on such issues would have to be taken by consensus, she answered.
Pakistan’s readymade garment exports rose five per cent in July to May 2015-16.
The quantity of readymade garment exports went up by four per cent. In May 2016, readymade garments exports were up five percent compared to May 2015. In terms of volume, readymade garments exports were up 2.23 per cent in May 2016 from May 2015.
The growth of readymade garment manufacturing in Pakistan represents a progression towards higher value addition in the global textile chain. Low or intermediate value-added products make up approximately 69 per cent of Pakistan’s total textile exports.
Pakistan’s garment exports have a relatively narrow base, with a few products accounting for the bulk of exports; the top six export products account for over 78 per cent of all garment exports. Export concentration also occurs at the lower end of the price range. For four out of the five most traded products, Pakistan’s average export price is approximately half of the world average export price.
The decision to protect the local fiber industry and impose high tariff and non-tariff barriers on the import of man-made fibers, yarn, and various fabrics has severely limited the export potential of garments. Garment manufacturers are required to produce and export items without imported yarn, fabric, or special trimmings and accessories. This raises costs and reduces international competitiveness. Additionally, given that man-made fibers now comprise 65 per cent of total fiber consumption in the world, Pakistan’s exporters are excluded from a substantial proportion of the market.
According to Pakistan’s industry officials, the US is likely to replace India as the major exporter of cotton to Pakistan in the current fiscal year after the commodity’s prices of the world’s second biggest producer increased.
Pakistan imported 2.5 million bales from India so far this year out of the total imports of three million bales to meet the shortfall. But, now the US is likely to emerge as the leading cotton supplier to Pakistan as its prices are competitive compared to Indian one, said Asif Inam, vice chairman at All Pakistan Textile Mills Association.
Meanwhile, the Indian cotton prices increased 35 per cent within the last 15 days due to low sowing reports. The price is eight to 10 per cent higher as compared to the international market. An official at the Pakistan Agriculture Research said local mills haven’t booked any more cotton from India and, ‘all have shifted to the US cotton.’
Industry officials expect cotton production between 11.2 and 11.8 million bales for the current season subject to improvement in yield and no major pest attacks. The cotton harvest reached only 9.786 million bales during 2015/16 season ended in mid April against the previous year’s 14.863 million bales. The local consumption for the last year stood at over 14 million bales.
Any business that wants to comply with the relevant social and environmental issues, minimise risks in its supply chain, avoid damage to its image, or has decided to source products in a more responsible manner, can consult Textile Standards & Legislation (TSL).
This is a 100 page printed booklet which includes easy-to-read snapshots and concise summaries of the key points of each third-party label, standard, framework or individual piece of legislation.
Textile Standards & Legislation is published to complement the associated TSL website, a fully searchable, regularly updated online tool which guides brands through the myriad of standards currently pertaining to the global textile industry.
TSL combines all the best elements of the previously published Eco-Textile Labeling Guide from MCL and the Signs tool developed by the European Outdoor Group. The guide was first published back in 2009, then known as the Eco-Textile Labeling Guide. There is currently no other printed guide of this nature in the market place.
TSL is a partnership between MCL News & Media – the leading media platform for the textile supply chain – and the European Outdoor Group, which with over 80 brand and retail members undertakes a number of innovative projects for the benefit of the European outdoor industry.
Armed with the text of a model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) that bars any enterprise from a treaty partner country from seeking relief on tax disputes under the treaty, India has fast-tracked the process of replacing several existing accords with fresh BITs and clinching such deals with countries outside India’s current treaty framework.
While the Cabinet note has already been circulated for a BIT with Cambodia, new treaties with countries with which India has strong economic ties will follow, it is understood.
However, talks with the US could take a bit long to come about. This is because the US is not one among India’s existing Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPA) partners and the BITs have no defined foundation to stand on.
People privy to the early talks with Washington in this connection have observed that the US has demanded that its companies be given the right to seek international arbitration rather than seek remedy through local courts in case of disputes, something which goes against the grain of India’s BIT text and so, it is not inclined to accept.
India has over 80 BIPAs with its trading partners. Sources said the US has also redefined its investment protection accords with major partners and so aligning these norms with India’s BIT would be necessary.
