As per Euratex’s latest estimates, the European Textile and Clothing industry and its exports to the US, reached a turnover of €165 billion in 2014. It generated a value added of nearly €44 billion, employing 1.63 million workers. A large number of SMEs, largely, support the European industry though big brands and companies also exist. The industry structure in the 28 Member States is diverse and provides a complex and patchy picture. A fragmented image is reflected of production due to the breakdown. It is almost equally divided between textiles (51 per cent) and clothing products (49 per cent).

The extra-EU exports of textile & clothing products reached €43 billion last year. These were divided almost equally between textiles and clothing. US, Europe’s first customer has exports reaching €4.91 billion last year, which were also divided equally between textiles (€2.35billion) and clothing (€2.56 billion).

Textile and clothing products are part of one third of industrial goods for which the US MFN tariffs are far above 5 per cent, stresses Euratex. There are some peak tariffs, though, such as 11.4 per cent for sewing thread of man-made filaments, 14.7 per cent for woven fabrics of cotton or 28.6 per cent for trousers and 32 per cent for T-shirts. Rules of origin are the main issue for EU’s textile and clothing sector against this background.

A good move would be to simplify the rules, but even better would be to adapt enough to the industry patterns. This will allow EU companies to gain the more benefits from TTIP.