"As per European Textile and Apparel Confederation (Euratex) in its annual report, the European textile sector generated a business volume of €181 billion in 2017. Europe is also one of the world’s biggest consumer markets along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. As Eurostat reveals in 2016, each European home invested almost a 5 per cent of its consumption expenditure in clothes and footwear, which is a total investment of €395.4 billion. Consumption of clothes further grew by 0.9 per cent in 2017."
As per European Textile and Apparel Confederation (Euratex) in its annual report, the European textile sector generated a business volume of €181 billion in 2017. Europe is also one of the world’s biggest consumer markets along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. As Eurostat reveals in 2016, each European home invested almost a 5 per cent of its consumption expenditure in clothes and footwear, which is a total investment of €395.4 billion. Consumption of clothes further grew by 0.9 per cent in 2017.
Trade agreements with Japan and Canada boost commercial exchange
To encourage free trade within the region, the European Union is negotiating bilateral agreements with various
countries. Two of the biggest agreements signed recently are the agreement with Canada (CETA) and the treaty with Japan (JEFTA). The Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was signed between the European Union and Canada. Reduction tariffs in the agreement, valid from 2017, have increased trade between the two territories by 20 per cent in besides boosting commercial interexchange by €20,000 annual million.
EU plans more treaties, agreement with Morocco causes concern
The European Union is also negotiating trade treaties with Mexico. The treaties deal with tariff reductions, with the leather as one of the most important raw materials in that exchange. Additionally, the union recently concluded agreements with South Korea, Moldova and Ukraine, and is negotiating with Colombia and China.
The European Union has also resumed dialogue with the US on free trade issues. After the US withdrawal of Tip negotiation post Donald Trump’s Presidency, the European Commission has started maintaining contacts again to resume negotiations.
However, the dialogue between the European Union and African countries of the Mediterranean watershed is a major cause of concern for the industry. One of these is about Morocco -- the main destination for Spanish textile exports. The country is seeking to reduce the number of industrial process to a single country in order to enjoy trade benefits. This will also allow them to abandon the European market and work with Asian raw material.
Promoting import from third world countries
The European Union also promotes import from third countries by excluding them from tariff payments upto approximately 50 years ago. Countries like Myanmar or Bangladesh enjoy free trade policies with Europe, despite not respecting human rights. According to the European Union, countries with good government also enjoy benefit. In this case, they are free of two third of the total tariffs rates. In this group, countries like Bolivia, Philippines or Sri Lanka are included.
However, countries having duty free access to the European market form the biggest group. This group caters to all kinds of products except arms and ammunition. The European Commission is now promoting a digital single market policy to encourage a single price for all European products sold online. Recently companies like Nike and Guess were penalized by the European Commission for violating this principle of digital single market, and limit cross-border sales to certain products.
