Value-added moulds of textile-RMG exports of China, India similar: WTO

Overall, China accounted for more than 40 per cent of the value added contained in global exports from this industry in 2022, underscoring the dominance of Chinese industries along the value chain.

The two economies increased their domestic capacity by more than 9 per cent on average from 2017 to 2022.

In contrast, several South-East Asian economies sourced a high share of their value-added exports from foreign suppliers, notably Vietnam (64 per cent foreign value-added in its total exports of textiles and clothing), Cambodia (58 per cent) and Indonesia (49 per cent).

Estimates show the industry generated 36.4 per cent of the value added in textiles and clothing exports in 2022.

The textiles and clothing industry represented 3.7 per cent of world merchandise exports in 2022. Asia is the world’s top producer of textiles and clothing, representing 70.6 per cent of world exports in 2022—a share that has increased by 11.2 percentage points since 2017. About 80 per cent of Asia’s exports were regional in 2022.

Europe’s share decreased by 1.8 percentage points during the same period. In the continent, the regional value-added content in exports was estimated at 65 per cent, the lowest rate of all regions, highlighting Europe’s need for global sourcing of raw materials.

In Europe, the combined domestic value-added content from Italy and Turkiye, the two main exporters, reached more than 30 per cent of the total value-added exports from the region in 2022. Turkiye significantly increased the domestic content in its textile and clothing exports, rising by an average of 10.9 per cent between 2017 and 2022.

South American exporters had high shares of domestic content in their textiles and clothing exports, with Brazil, the largest exporter in the region, recording 82.9 per cent in 2022. However, since 2017 the country has increasingly relied on imported intermediate goods to produce its exports.

Vietnam had the highest rate of foreign inputs in textiles and clothing exports in 2022, estimated at 64.2 per cent.

Among the top exporters of textiles and clothing products, Bangladesh and India showed the largest increase of foreign value-added content from 2017 to 2022, reaching 20.7 per cent on an annual basis for Bangladesh and 23.2 per cent for India.

A third of Japanese textile and clothing exports in 2022 consisted of advanced textiles sent to foreign partners, the WTO report added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)