Last World Trade Organization (WTO), data shows, global fashion exports in the last decade increased by 35.1 per cent, while global trade increased 26.4 per cent. In 2007, two years after the Multifiber Agreement came into force, clothing exports increased to $349 billion. A decade later, these exports increased to $471 billion. Global trade in the same period increased from $14 billion in 2007, to $17.7 billion in 2017.

India registered the strongest performance in its international clothing trade during this period; followed by Brazil and other Asiatic countries excluding China and the ASEAN member. Exports by the United States increased by 28.6 per cent between 2007 and 2008, those by Japan increased by 20.1 per cent and the European Union by 33.5 per cent.

China, that entered the WTO in 2001, increased its garment exports by 93.3 per cent during this period. Middle East and Australia also positioned high in the list, with rises near 100 per cent.

Restrictive measures of world trade registered exceptionally high levels between October 2019 and mid-2019 as the value of trade affected by these countries was estimated to be $339 billion, the second highest number available, after the $588 billion registered the previous period.