In 2017, China supplied 33.3 per cent of the EU’s apparel and textile imports.China had a 34 per cent share of the EU’s clothing imports. Bangladesh ranked second, with a 17 per cent share. Turkey ranked third, with a 11.7 per cent share. India ranked fourth, while Pakistan came fifth.

The share of China, Bangladesh, and Turkey in EU clothing imports is 62.6 per cent.

Textile products, including yarn, fiber, fabric and home textiles, imported by the European Union countries from all over the world in 2017 increased by three per cent compared to the previous year.

EU’s imports of textile products from Turkey last year increased by 0.7 per cent compared to the previous year.

The third largest textile supplier to the EU is India. Approximately 1.3 billion euro worth of textile products were imported from India in 2017. The fourth largest textile supplier to the EU is South Korea.

The EU itself has a vibrant textile and clothing industry. It covers a wide range of activities like transferring raw fiber into yarns and then yarns into fabric and then finally using the fabric to produce a wide range of finished products such as wool, bed linen, geo-textiles, clothing, and synthetic yarns.