Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) has appealed the government to allow duty-free import of fabric under a simple and easy procedure instead of ‘Procedure of Duty Tax Remission for Exports’ (DTRE).

AdeebIqbalSheikeh, Vice-Chairman and North Zone Head, PRGMEA suggested the government to review its textile policy to remove hurdles hindering exports and to enable the textile sector to attain the exports targets. It urged the government to abolish all duties on the import of fabrics in line with the import relaxation provided on import of cotton yarn, as value-added garment sector is facing severe shortage of basic raw material of fabrics, which may lead to a drastic decline in value-added textile export.

PRGMEA also wants duty-free import of fabric, as the cotton prices find no respite from an unabated spike with the industrial input trading at season’s highest rates because its muted local production continues to widen demand and supply gap,Sheikeh added.

GOTS certified facilities increased by 34 per cent in 2020 to 10,388. 16 GOTS Approved Certification Bodies report that over three million people in over 72 countries were working in GOTS certified facilities. Tops 10 countries for certified facilities during the year included India (2,994), Bangladesh (1,584), Turkey (1,107), China (961), Germany (684), Italy (585), Portugal (449), Pakistan (391), USA (167) and Sri Lanka (126). GOTS approved chemical inputs increased by 13 per cent to 25,913.

The exceptional increase shows decision makers value GOTS as an important tool to drive sustainable transformation in a comprehensive way - from field to fashion. Using organic fibers and processing them under strict GOTS criteria definitely provides a credible and strong base for market players to be successful in the future, says GOTS Managing Director Claudia Kersten.

GOTS version 6.0, implemented from March 1, 2021, includes stricter social and environmental criteria. Certified Entities will now have to calculate the gap between wages paid to 'Living Wages' and will be encouraged to work towards closing this gap.

Bangladesh has appealed against Jakarta's imposition of safeguard duty on export of apparel items to Indonesia. On February 23, the committee on safeguards of the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a notification on the duty imposition.

As per this notification, Jakarta imposed a safeguard duty ranging from $0.44 to $11.29 per piece on readymade garments (RMG) from Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and Singapore. The RMG items include top garments (casual), top garments (formal), bottom garments, suits, ensembles and dresses, outwear, babies' garments and clothing accessories, and headwear and neckwear.

Opposing this imposition, Hafizur Rahman, Director General-WTO Cell, Commerce Ministry, said a Bangladesh delegation comprising representatives of commerce ministry, Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission, and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) took part in a hearing in November last year.

Indonesia's textile association appealed to the Safeguards Committee saying the country's RMG import was hurting the domestic apparel makers. Subsequently, the Indonesian Safeguards Committee conducted an investigation in 2017-2019 and came up with the measure.

Global fashion brands are expected to grant Philippine garment factories new orders worth $500 million as they start transferring production orders from troubled Myanmar to the Philippines and other Asian countries. Robert Young, President, Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP) informs, the group has been securing relocated garment and apparel production export orders and inquiries on fresh buying import program from buyers like Zeeman Europe, Walmart, TJ MAx USA, and Hudsons Canada, among others. The association estimates orders worth $200 million to have been booked and FOBAP projects double in quantity in the coming three to four months.

New orders mostly comprise simpler and basic babies’ playwear, men’s athletic and sporting outfit, ladies’ dresses, and intimate apparel. He expects the orders to take total garment and hard goods exports to about $1.7 billion to $2 billion this year. Young estimates 10,000 to 20,000 jobs will be created in factories located in Metro Manila and Cebu.

To capture projected total export orders from top global fashion brands, Young urged the government to further support export activities, such as easing of the coronavirus quarantine and over restrictive pandemic regulations while still following the required health protocol amid the pandemic.

As per Asad Umar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Pakistan aims to introduce a new textile policy that will help the country maintain its current growth tempo. He said the textile boom, being witnessed in Faisalabad, clearly indicates the city was the main beneficiary of government's policies.

He dismissed allegations that the previous textile policy was not implemented in true letter and spirit and added that its positive results were reflected in the textile boom. He said, the government’s new textile policy aims to stabilize the gains of present policy. The government is focusing on strengthening the manufacturing sector with Chinese cooperation in the second phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He said government’s subsidy would benefit the textile sector immensely. He requested FCCI President Hafiz Ihtasham Javed to prepare a comprehensive report on the problems faced by the business community along with their solutions so that they could be incorporated into the budget for next fiscal year.

Javed said that if electricity and gas subsidies were withdrawn, industrialists would lose their competitive edge in the international market. He urged the government to take immediate remedial steps or else Pakistan would lose its hard-earned foreign markets.

A new report says, Brazil needs to build a more sustainable fashion supply chain in key cotton, polyester and viscose production process to counter rising pollution and deforestation. The study, ‘Fashion Threads: Systemic Perspectives for a Circular Fashion,’ reveal, emissions from the country’s cotton farming and production chain have reached critical levels while textile waste has risen to 330 tons daily in some parts of Sao Paulo State.

This is making Brazil a key contributor to global fashion emissions, says the report, funded by Dutch advocacy group Laudes Foundation, formerly the C&A Institute, and prepared by circular fashion and green consultancies Regenerate, Modefica and Brazilian think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas. To fix the problem, the authors recommend that the bulk of cotton, polyester and viscose production, and other synthetic fabrics, be replaced with alternative and more environmentally friendly alternatives and urges Brazil to promote circular fashion or recycling to extend a product’s life cycle.

The authors also recommend polyester production to be increasingly replaced by recycled polyester such as PET plastic bottles, production of which has been increasing but not enough to make a positive impact. Circular fashion should become a higher priority with the government providing recycling bins, such as those used in other countries, and enacting laws to minimize or ban textile manufacturing waste, says Larrissa Roviezzo, Manager, Regenerate Fashion. Producers should also invest in new recycling facilities while designers should be encouraged to dream up products with reusable fabrics, she adds.

Textile/apparel trade show Première Vision Paris has reported that its Digital Show session, staged on the event’s e-marketplace on February 15-19, recorded over 30,000 sessions (number of user interactions). The number of product data sheets accessed was 175,000, up from 138,000 last September.

The show’s organizer stated that industry professionals from 110 countries attended the session. The largest national contingents came from France, the UK and Italy, followed by those from the USA, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and South Korea. Visitors viewed about 460,000 web pages, as opposed to 376,900 the previous season. Crucially, average visit time rose from 9’ 50’’ to 20’ 55’’.

The increase in visit time was chiefly due to the nine online forums held, and the 11 trend-forecasting articles published. Additionally, the event featured 13 digital talks with industry panellists, including the presentation of a study by the Première Vision chair at the French Fashion Institute (IFM), which focused on the sourcing upheavals triggered by the Covid-19 crisis.

The debates were followed live by 7,260 viewers, with 10,175 viewers watching the repeats, compared to 4,140 and 6,214 viewers respectively for the September 2020 session. Digital Show's latest edition was held on the show organiser’s revamped website, now the event's central hub. All the various PV shows (Fabrics, Yarn, Leather, Accessories, Design and Manufacturing) have gradually been included on the website. Also, the individual manufacturers’ pages, now 1,560 in total, with 50,000 products on display, have been redesigned to contain more information.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) welcomed the textile rebates published in the South Africa Government Gazette as a breakthrough that will save garment and textile jobs as well as boost manufacturing at small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs).

The 5 February notice states that there will be duty free imports for woven fabrics. SACTWU says this policy shift will promote growth in the textile and garment manufacturing sectors. Further, it will stimulate local procurement and increase the sector’s contribution to the industrialization of the country.

This will save jobs in an economy where unemployment is high. According to Statistics South Africa’s 2020 4th Quarterly report unemployment is 32, 5 per cent, and as high as 42, 5 per cent if you consider the expanded unemployment rate that includes discouraged job seekers.

The R-CTFL masterplan, launched by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, aims to develop the textile and garment value chain. The value chain includes spinning, woven, dyeing, knitted, and finishing of natural and synthetic fibre inputs and leather tanning.

Cut-make-trim, design houses, garment, and household textile manufacturers, as well as leather and shoe manufacturers are also part of the value chain. Locally sourced and imported products are also included while retail deals with domestic and international markets.

The social dialogue partners that took part in the negotiations are the National Clothing Retail Federation (NCRF) representing garment retailers, Apparel and Textile Association of South Africa (ATASA), the South African Apparel Association (SAAA), and Apparel Manufacturers of South Africa (AMSA) representing garment manufacturers, and the Textile Federation (Texfed) representing textile mills.

John Lewis & Partners plans to fund a three-year program run by the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA), to support the expansion of the SFA’s new Cashmere Standard from Mongolia to the Inner Mongolia region of China.

Climate change and increased global demand for cashmere are putting pressure on the fragile ecosystems the cashmere industry relies upon. In response to this, a global standard has been developed by the SFA to promote best practice in land management, animal welfare, fibre processing and supply chain transparency, ensuring the long-term viability of the cashmere sector.

This work will protect the welfare of the goats, the land and the livelihoods of thousands of families who are dependent upon the production of cashmere fibres

John Lewis is funding the training of 420 herders in Inner Mongolia, on the global standard. Training will be provided by a leading animal welfare NGO, the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW), together with experts from a local agricultural university. Once the herders have completed their training, they will carry out self-assessments against the requirements of the Standard and undergo independent farm inspections before being given SFA accreditation.

In the first year, the program will focus on animal welfare, and then it will be expanded to cover the protection of biodiversity and how to secure herder livelihoods in the long term.

Japanese apparel sales fell by 20 per cent in January on a year-on-year basis. As per the data obtained from 10,997 stores of 56 companies associated with Japan Chain Stores Association (JCSA), these stores clocked revenues worth 59,288.98 million yen in January ’21, which valued 74,204 million yen in January ’20.

Menswear clocked 11,002.90 million yen revenues during January ’21, which is a significant fall of 26.40 per cent on Y-o-Y basis The revenues were down on M-o-M basis too as there was a 20.70 per cent decline noted in January as compared to December ’20.

Womenswear revenues valued 14,559.98 million yen in January with a drastic fall of 29.40 per cent on Y-o-Y basis. However, M-o-M decline was not huge as the sales of women clothing in Japanese chain stores dropped by 14.80 per cent as compared to December ’20.

All other types of clothing, including kidswear, clocked revenues worth 33,726.23 million yen, a decline of 12.60 per cent; however the drop was discouraging for the retailers as compared to December ’20 as a huge 31.80 per cent drop was recorded on monthly note.