CANADA TOPS OCT. U.S. IMPORT LIST
Byline: Jim Ostroff
WASHINGTON — Canada copped the title as the U.S.’s leading supplier of textiles and apparel combined in October, dethroning Mexico, the previous month’s champion.
But whereas Mexico in September overtook China for the top spot by dint of gargantuan year-to-year increases in textile and apparel shipments, Canada’s rise — based on past trends — was likely due almost exclusively to much higher exports of textiles, trade analysts say. This can’t be said for sure, though, since the Commerce Department’s report on October imports, released Thursday, had no breakout of apparel, fabric and yarn shipments by individual nations for the month.
The three-week partial government shutdown delayed release of even this incomplete data by about one month.
Commerce’s October trade overview found combined imports of textiles and apparel rose 4.9 percent to 1.59 billion square meters equivalent. This follows a 2.1 percent decline in September, which marked the first time since January 1993 that this benchmark number had fallen. For the first 10 months of 1995, textile and apparel imports rose 8.2 percent to 15.71 billion SME and for the 12 months through October, they were up 8.4 percent to 18.47 billion SME.
Apparel imports inched up 4.9 percent in October to 821.9 million SME. For the year to date, these imports rose 12.3 percent to 7.96 billion SME and for the year ending October were up 12.9 percent to 9.29 billion SME.
Textile imports also climbed 4.9 percent in October to 770.9 million SME. But over the longer periods, percentage increases for textile imports were roughly one-third those of apparel. For the 10 months, textile imports were up 4.2 percent to 7.75 billion SME and for the year ending October, they also were up 4.2 percent to 9.17 billion SME.
During October, Canada, as the top supplier, shipped 159.4 million SME of textiles and apparel, up 32.3 percent from a year earlier. Due to data processing delays stemming from the government shutdown, Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel was not able to provide a breakout of these shipments by components. However, the bulk of Canada’s exports to the U.S. traditionally are textile products. For example, Canada’s textile and apparel exports to the U.S. during the first 10 months of 1995 climbed 16.2 percent to 1.28 billion SME. Four textile products, such as man-made fiber textured yarns, accounted for almost two-thirds of the entire increase.
Rounding out the top major shippers during October, after Canada, Mexico — the U.S.’s other free-trade partner under the North American Free Trade Agreement — took second place with combined textile-apparel shipments of 156.9 million SME, a 55.1 percent increase from a year ago. Taiwan was third with 109.5 million SME, down 9 percent from a year earlier, and China was fourth with 101.6 million SME, down 33.5 percent from a year ago. Hong Kong was in fifth place with 94.2 million SME shipped in October, off 13.3 percent from a year earlier.
For the 10 months, China retains its lead as the U.S.’s top source of imported apparel and textiles, combined, with 1.64 billion SME shipped. This total was down 12 percent from a year ago and marks yet another drop in a long string of double-digit percentage declines. Mexico took the second spot by a whisker, shipping 1,281.6 million SME to the U.S. in the first 10 months of 1995 — up 63 percent from a year ago — against Canada’s 1,281.2 million SME.
Taiwan was in fourth place behind Canada, shipping 1.01 billion SME to the U.S. for the year to date, down 2.1 percent, and Hong Kong was fifth, with 843.5 million SME, down 1.7 percent.
Commerce’s OTEXA was able to provide textile and apparel product export data for the U.S.’s two NAFTA partners for the 10-month period. Mexico’s growth was spread among more than one dozen categories, but four contributed about 28 percent of the increase. Men’s and boys’ and women’s and girls’ trousers soared 55 percent to almost 152 million SME; cotton underwear by 61 percent, to 63.3 million SME. Men’s and boys’ and women’s and girls’ man-made fiber knit shirts bolted upwards by 81 percent for the year to date, to 96.2 million SME. Finally, polypropylene bags jumped 76 percent to 104.8 million SME.
A separate report prepared by OTEXA, examining trade under NAFTA, reinforced the notion that this pact is driving the enormous increases in apparel and textile exports to the U.S. by Mexico and Canada. The study, done by OTEXA analyst Keith Daly, shows that about 94.3 percent of Mexico’s 711.9 million SME of apparel exports shipped in the 12 months through October qualified for NAFTA free-trade preferences.
Nearly 80 percent would have qualified for preferences under the U.S.’s 807(A) program — which means that fabric made and cut in the U.S. was used in Mexican maquila assembly operations.
Of the 704.2 million SME of textiles Mexico exported to the U.S. for the year ending in October, 666.6 million SME qualified for NAFTA benefits, but only 4.5 percent was made of U.S. yarns.
Canada exported 118.7 million SME of apparel to the U.S. for the year ended in October. Of this total, about 79 million SME qualified for NAFTA preferences, or 66.7 percent, but virtually none of it used U.S. fabrics. — Fairchild News Service