FW
The Textile Exchange has come up with broad commitments that for the textile industry under the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS). The RWS is a voluntary global standard that addresses the welfare of sheep and of the land they graze on. As many as 15 brands have committed to the RWS. Madelene Ericsson of H&M said that her company commits to using RWS wool and the company has a long term goal to only use RWS certified wool in its products. Eddie Bauer is committed to the RWS and will begin shifting its material base to RWS-certified fiber in 2017, with a goal of being 100 per cent certified as soon as the company’s supply chain can provide RWS fiber across all categories, observed Damien Huang of Eddie Bauer.
Jesse Montano of Coyuchi observed that his company takes expert care to ensure that everything that bears the Coyuchi label is produced and processed as per strictest environmental standards in safe and humane conditions, from farm to factory to home. Thus, the company is looking forward to adopting RWS wool in its supply chain for Fall 2017. Others who have committed to RWS are Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, Tchibo, Varner, Vaude, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Deckers, Kathmandu and Knowledge Cotton Apparel.
World trade in 2016 is expected to expand by just 1.7 per cent. The 1.7 per cent growth in world merchandise trade volume will be accompanied by real GDP growth of 2.2 per cent at market exchange rates. This would be the slowest pace of trade and output growth since the 2009 financial crisis.
Trade growth was weaker than expected in the first half of 2016 due to falling import demand and slowing GDP growth in several major developing economies as well as in North America. Certain trade-related indicators have improved, including export orders and container port throughput, but overall momentum in trade remains weak.
The dramatic slowing down of trade growth is particularly serious in the context of the growing anti-globalisation sentiment. Its possible this may translate into misguided policies that could make the situation much worse, not only from the perspective of trade, but also for job creation and economic growth and development which are closely linked to an open trading system.
The way out is to build a more inclusive trading system that goes further to support poorer countries to take part and benefit, as well as entrepreneurs, small companies, and marginalised groups in all economies.
Italian textile industry show Milano Unica has changed the date of the winter show. Now it will be held in July instead of September. One reason for the change is the show had lost some ground in the last few years. So this decision means it will be held in advance of other textile events. Last year Milano Unica launched Prima MU, a small show dedicated to pre-collections. But with the September edition hot on its heels Italian fabric manufacturers were not able to handle two events so close to each other.
Though it will not be easy for companies to present their collections two months ahead of the traditional autumn event, the decision to bring the date forward is a swift response to the changes the fashion world is going through. It remains to be seen whether buyers will place any orders in July, or whether they will be simply happy to view the collections, preferring to wait before committing themselves.
Milano Unica has been created through the tradition of five Italian exhibitions, Ideabiella, Ideacomo, Moda In, Prato Expo, Shirt Avenue. The project is held twice a year and presents the finest quality products from both Italian and European textile manufacturers. The name Milano Unica represents the three essential characteristics of the textile fair, singular, exclusive, united.
Men have now grown more comfortable with the idea of incorporating spandex into their pants. Elastane (the generic term for Spandex and Lycra) has always appeared in men's activewear (including Lululemon's ABC pants) as well as in niche items, like ultra-skinny jeans . But now clothing brands from J.Crew to Uniqlo have all jumped on the flexible bandwagon and there's a really good reason. Stretch improves comfort in a way you can actually feel and it makes doing anything in your pants easier from biking to flat pack furniture shopping. The material is used in these cases because it can stretch four to seven times its initial size and return to its original form later.
Even Levi's announced their most popular and cult-favored jeans are now being produced with stretch, with 1 per cent elastane, the first change to the 501 fabric in 140 years. Levi's acknowledges this may anger denim purists, but finish technicians ensured this new fabric maintained the DNA and integrity of the original.
Men are now used to having elastane in their pants for their athleisure garments. Traditional pant sellers now need to incorporate it to maintain the same level of comfort. Retailers of rigid clothing are feeling the pressure to adapt their clothing and make them more comfortable, as that is driving sales and eating away at the profits of non-stretch clothing.
The pant's cuts do not change, and depending on how much stretch there is, they look very similar as non-stretch pants. Levi's claims that the pants look entirely similar to non-stretch 501 jeans and one only feels the difference when he puts them on.
GTex is being held in Pakistan from September 28 to 30. This is a textile machinery show. This is the largest and the most successful event of its kind in the region with regard to textiles, garments, embroidery, digital printing, chemicals, yarns and brands. For visitors of the textile industry from all over the world, such as manufacturers, buyers, retailers, importers, investors and decision makers, this event offers every year optimum possibilities to come into contact with real experts with the aim of exchanging experiences.
It has become one of the world’s best sourcing platforms in Pakistan. As many as 97 companies with 399 brands are participating in the expo. About 67 foreign delegates from European countries and China have also displayed their products in the exhibition. More than 15,000 visitors are expected during the three day expo. With live demonstrations and B2B meetings a deeper idea of materials, production methods, new technologies and machines can be obtained, which can open up new business contacts and networks to joint ventures.
Product groups are brands, chemicals, clothing, designers, digital printing, dyes, embroidery, energy, fabrics, garments, graphic systems, home textiles, leather, packaging, plastic, series, textile machinery, textiles, yarns.
The handlooms sector in Orissa that was facing a crisis due to poor demand for cotton lungis and towels for the last several years has received a new lease of life with the production of linen and mercerized cotton fabrics. The textiles and handlooms department is now creating awareness among local weavers to produce linen and mercerized cotton fabrics to meet the high demand and get better remuneration.
Weavers of Khurda, district had carved a niche for themselves in the cotton garments sector of the state in the post-independence era. Among the most sought garments across the state were cotton lungis, saris and towels produced by local weavers. The said garments even had a good market in states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.
However, mass production of cotton garments in textile mills at Coimbatore, Surat and Mumbai had dealt a death blow to Khurda’s handlooms sector in the 90s. Better quality and low price of machine-made clothes had virtually wiped out handloom products of local weavers. To revive Khurda’s handlooms sector, the textiles department has recently introduced production of linen and mercerized cotton fabrics in Bolgarh and Jatni areas. The regional textile department office is now offering linen and mercerized cotton threads at low prices, new looms, training facility and bank loans to entice weavers to produce new varieties of fabrics.
The textile department is also getting linen threads from Kolkata and mercerized cotton threads from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu to meet the demand. The textile department has proposed to offer raw materials to weavers and collect finished products from them for marking through its nodal agency Bayanika.
The indirect tax regime GST will come into effect from April 2017. As per rules for refund, every registered taxable person will be required to furnish a monthly return in a specified form. There is also a provision for electronic furnishing of annual return by every registered taxable person and composition supplier. Every taxable person whose aggregate turnover during a financial year exceeds a crore will be required to submit annually a certified audited statement.
The draft rules have prescribed the form and manner of submission of quarterly returns by a composition supplier, returns by a non-resident taxable person, input service distributor, persons required to deduct tax at source and the form and manner of submitting statement of supplies effected through e-commerce. The rules also provide for matching of input tax credit claim on inward supplies and procedure for output tax liability reduction claim.
No refund of input tax credit would be allowed if the supplier of goods or services avails of a drawback or claims rebate of tax paid. The rules also provide for grant of provisional 80 per cent refund to notified exporters and refund to certain persons. Refund in case of export of taxable goods or services without payment of tax under bond or letter of undertaking shall be granted on the basis of a prescribed formula.
After three days of doing good business, the Fashion Access and Cashmere World's Spring / Summer 2017 edition came to an end on September 24. In all, exhibitors and buyers were satisfied with the fair itself and optimistic about the future of the economy in China and throughout Asia.
Buyers from top brands attended both fairs. Participants included: MetroCity from Korea, Li & Fung, French Connection, I.T Apparels from Hong Kong, Abahouse from Japan, Marmalato, Names.RU and PJSC Melon Fashion Group from Russia, Zalora from Singapore, Le Cashmere and Hircus from UK and The Sak Brand Group from USA among others. Around 150 exhibitors from 18 countries and regions were represented with 30 exhibitors participating in Cashmere World, the only trade fair in the world dedicated to luxury fine fibres. Among the highlights were exhibitors from Brazil and Korea with Korean pavilion attracting a lot of attention. South America and Brazil in particular were represented at the Fashion Access.
At the symposia, modern consumer trends were discussed through seminars. Selected exhibitors are awarded for their product design excellence at the Best of APLF Awards (BOAA) twice a year. Shanghai Legend International won the Best Bag Collection Award for their high-end-looking and extremely cohesive collection of bags made of felt. Other winners included young Russian designer and entrepreneur Bags Business Limited for its fresh take on classic silhouette ladies handbags; the Italian footwear manufacturer LSR International for its classic yet very young and urban collection of ladies footwear; and Ningbo Consinee Woolen Textile, for its elegant presentation of ladies garments made with the company's yarns.
The US refuses to recognize China as a market economy. China's exports to the United States in the first three quarters increased 18.7 per cent over the same period of 2016, and China’s trade surplus with the United States in the first 10 months expanded 7.3 per cent to reach $225 billion. The robust growth in China’s exports to the United States and the appreciable trade surplus could be a catalyst for the US to maintain a tough stance on China.
Such behavior is reminiscent of the domestic laws of certain WTO members in the Cold War era, and the refusal would put trade ties with China at risk. On the other hand, China has established and continuously improved its market economy system, which has earned worldwide recognition. So far, more than 80 economies have recognized China as a market economy.
So the US opposition to recognizing China as a market economy within the framework of the World Trade Organization is in disregard of the relevant WTO rules. The United States has tried to mix the concepts of the surrogate country approach and market economy status. But the case is about surrogate country approach, not market economy status, which means the former is within multilateral trade rules, while the latter is regarded as a domestic law issue.
Textile exports contributed 1.21 per cent to Indonesia’s gross domestic product in 2015. Indonesia is one of the world’s largest textile producers. There are currently around three million Indonesians working in the textile industry. The country is part of the Asean. So, goods - including textile and textile products – are flowing freely within member countries in the region. This means there is a continuously rising flow of imported textile products into Indonesia.
However, Indonesian textile players say that many textiles that are supposed to be coming from other Asean countries are actually originating from non-Asean countries. These imports of relatively cheap textile products are putting pressure on Indonesia’s domestic textile manufacturing industry, an industry that is already under pressure. Since the launch of the Asean China free trade agreement in 2010, the Indonesian market has seen a great surge in cheap textile imports from China.
Meanwhile, Indonesian textile manufacturers have difficulty competing on a global scale as local gas prices are high, while the industry is highly dependent on imports of raw materials from abroad, which cause high production costs. In 2015 Indonesia imported textiles worth millions of dollars from Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. Especially Singapore is a source of transshipments of textile products that are manufactured outside the Asean region.
