The Chinese share in US Apparels had started declining since 2018. In particular, last year (2019) witnessed around 20000 Cr market share loss for China in the Apparel segment alone. Now – Post Covid, the declining trend is accelerating.
Due to Covid implications, the overall US Apparel imports dropped by 30% in the first 7 months of 2020; while their import of Chinese Apparel dropped by 49%.
Moreover, the news about recent US actions in terms of trade restrictions on Chinese Apparel & other products from one of the major textile regions – Xinjiang leads to a notion that it will accelerate the trend further.
All together, this trend may create a $10 Billion opportunity in US markets in Apparel segment alone for other countries including India.
The Indian Apparel clusters should take advantage of the situation and aggressively focus on US markets.
After the EU-Vietnam FDA, Vietnam’s duty-free access may create further pressure to our Apparel exports to EU. However, India competing nations like Vietnam and Bangladesh all have a level playing field in USA because all of these countries do not have an FTA with the USA as of now.
So, it’s right time to step up efforts with US markets as a market diversification strategy.
Many of our clusters in Tamil Nadu have demonstrated high level of quality, consistency, on-time delivery, best sustainable practices, Green manufacturing practices, empowerment of rural workforce. Now it’s time for Tamil Nadu textile clusters to form an alliance; Project their strengths and Market it well to establish a strong TN textile sector and USA partnership as an alternative to China in Apparel sector.
We urge each & every textile enterprise in Tamil Nadu to explore US markets aggressively NOW.
