"Rising labor costs in East Asia and tax-free access to the US market is encouraging Asian textile and garment manufacturers and Western buyers to turn to Egypt. China is planning to move 20 per cent of its production to Egypt either by setting up shop, through mergers or full acquisitions of local companies. The US-China trade war is also pushing Chinese manufacturers to look for new hubs to avoid potential tariffs of 25 percent into the US."

Rising labor costs in East Asia and tax-free access to the US market is encouraging Asian textile and garment manufacturers and Western buyers to turn to Egypt. China is planning to move 20 per cent of its production to Egypt either by setting up shop, through mergers or full acquisitions of local companies. The US-China trade war is also pushing Chinese manufacturers to look for new hubs to avoid potential tariffs of 25 percent into the US.

QIZ enables duty-free export of garments to Egypt

The Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) program allows Egyptian manufacturers to export garments to the US duty-free, if at least 10.5 percent of raw materials used in the garment are Israeli. As the Readymade Garment Export Council of Egypt notes, these zones, established by the US Congress in 1996, have generated over $8.6bn in exports since 2004.

The scheme has also raised concerns among Egyptians who reject normalisation of relations with Israel and specifically protested against QIZs during the 2011 uprisings. Last year, exports from the QIZs were worth $752.7 million while in the first half of 2018, exports to the US grew by 25 per cent, according to QIZ Egypt figures. QIZ exports account for 46.7 percent of Egypt’s total exports to the US.

Egypt wants to bolster the current garment and textile exports, roughly split between the EU and US, to $10 billion by 2025. If this figure is achieved, around $5 billion or more would be destined for the US, significantly increasing the amount Israel will net through the QIZ agreement. Chinese firms will also benefit from the QIZ agreement, and directly bolster Israeli exports. Such an uptick in exports is considered probable given the historical trajectory of other garment manufacturers to reach over $5bn in annual exports.

A major sourcing hub for Chinese companies

China has invested around $6 billion in Egypt over the past four years, while $18 billion in deals were signed with Chinese companies during President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to Beijing in September, including railway, real estate and energy projects. Chinese businessmen see Egypt as a major sourcing hub for Chinese companies as they expect up to 50 per cent of Chinese production to relocate.

On its part, to attract foreign investment, Egypt has established a new industrial city in New Suez, slated to open at the end of the year, and allocated 1.2 million sq. mt. of land in the industrial zone of El Minya in Upper Egypt. Foreign companies can employ up to 25 per cent non-Egyptian workers.

Egyptian companies may feel the squeeze by Ethiopia

A particular growth driver of Egypt’s garment exports is the expansion of Hong Kong-based Li & Fung, the world's leading supply chain solutions partner which connects buyers, retailers and suppliers for consumer brands and retailers, in the country.

Currently, out of the $16 billion in volume and five billion pieces of clothing that Li & Fung sourced globally last year, just $30 million – or 1.62 million pieces - were from Egypt. By 2019, Li & Fung wants to double that figure, and by 2022 aims to source $90m from Egypt.

Yet while Egypt offers favorable investment terms to foreign companies - Turkish and South Korean firms are already established at QIZs– Egyptian companies may feel the squeeze in future as Ethiopia offers free land and low wages and electricity. Besides, the country also has an FTA with the USA.

The US wants its trade agreement with the EU to develop rules of origin that ensure that preferential benefits go to products genuinely made in the United States and the EU. Apart from wanting a comprehensive duty free treatment for textiles and apparel products, the US wants rules of origin to incentivize production in the US and EU and establish origin procedures that streamline the certification and verification of rules of origin and that promote strong enforcement, including with respect to textiles.

In customs and trade facilitation, the US aims at building mechanisms to ensure shipments are released quickly after determining compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, objectives in this area include providing for streamlined and expedited customs treatment for express delivery shipments, simplified customs procedures for low-value goods and a more reciprocal de minimis shipment value–the minimum value for goods that can enter the country duty-free–all generally aimed at promoting cross-border e-commerce.

The US also wants to create a mechanism to take appropriate action if the EU negotiates a free trade agreement with a non-market country, such as China. Additionally, the US wants to strengthen existing procedures and create new ones to address antidumping and countervailing duty evasion.

Fashion festival Pure London, Pure Origin will launch its own forward trends catwalk showcasing key looks, innovations and materials for AW21/SS22. Pure Origin will be held from February 10 to 12, 2019. This is a manufacturing and supply chain expo. Major players in the industry will showcase new technologies and emerging trends that will shape the future of fashion and help businesses to stay ahead of the curve in today’s fast-changing retail landscape. Offering a visual platform, the catwalk will showcase the latest trends for sourcing, sustainability and manufacturing including fabric, raw materials, apparel, footwear and accessories.

As a convenient and cost-effective way for buyers to meet with UK and international manufacturers, Pure Origin brings together over 200 exhibitors from 13 countries to create a wide range of business and networking opportunities, new thinking and innovation. Garment and fabric suppliers, denim and textile designers and technology brands attract buyers, sourcing, and technical personnel. With its own seminar stage, Pure Origin features speakers and leading change-makers debating the future and how to make it sustainable and circular. The biggest challenges in garment sourcing, from the integration between sustainability and speed-to-market, supply chain transparency, fabric and technological innovation, will be addressed.

Pakistan’s textile policy for 2014-19 has failed to achieve its targets. The main reasons are: a financial crunch for different schemes under the policy and non-availability of energy at competitive prices.

Exports of textile products were expected to increase beyond 10 per cent. Instead exports further declined during this period. One main export impediment is the levy of customs duty on import of cotton. During the policy implementation period, the energy cost was made almost double and resultantly several mills were closed, rendering thousands of people jobless.

The textile policy aimed at doubling value addition in five years, doubling textile exports in five years, facilitating additional investment in machinery and technology, improving the fiber mix in favor of non-cotton, improving the product mix especially in the garment sector, strengthening existing textile firms and establishing new ones, making the textile sector domestically and internationally compliant, especially with respect to labor and environment rules and conventions, encouraging textile units to use modern management practices for improving efficiency and reducing waste.

The policy aimed at systematically developing and strengthening clusters, training workers for capacity building, offering internships and programs for enhancement of skills and adopting measures to increase the ease of doing business and reduce the cost of doing business.

Pakistan’s overall exports grew 2.19 per cent during July to December. Imports fell by 2.29 per cent. Textile exports grew 0.06 per cent from July to December.

Exports of knitwear grew 10.51 per cent during July to December. Exports of bed wear increased by 3.27 per cent and exports of made-up articles rose by 1.57 per cent. Meanwhile, exports of readymade garments surged by 0.89 per cent in first six months of the current financial year.

Exports of cotton cloth fell 100 per cent. Similarly, exports of raw cotton tumbled by 73.62 per cent. Exports of cotton yarn witnessed an increase of 17.14 per cent. Exports of towels declined 2.03 per cent. Exports of cotton cloth, tents, canvas and tarpaulin and others also registered a decline during the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year.

The Islamic Fashion and Design Council (IFDC) has dedicated a fund to help emerging modest brands find success in the business of modest fashion and lifestyle. Participants have the potential to become a strong part of the global modest fashion narrative. The first event where the fund will be applied is the upcoming Pret-A-Cover Buyers Lane. This is a first in the global modest fashion space.

The Pret-A-Cover Buyers Lane is an invitation-only platform where well selected modest fashion and design brands will be showcased to global attendees; an opportunity that can very well catapult their journey to the next level.

One challenge for designers is rising event production costs. A designer’s career can be made or broken by their ability to showcase work and gain critical exposure at key events like Pret A Cover Buyers Lane. Until now. IFDC will be working together with brands, helping them to remove roadblocks thereby increasing their pathways to development and success. By covering fees and certain costs, IFDC’s aim is to significantly bolster the momentum of the growing modest lifestyle industry.

Designers will get direct access to prominent global retailers, VIPs, industry leaders, and more looking to discover opportunities within the lucrative Muslim fashion and lifestyle markets and also within the wider secondary market of modest lifestyle consumers.

Digimarc has developed a barcode for apparel application. With this barcode, shoppers can scan hangtags or apparel labels using their phones to complete a purchase in the aisle or to find sizes, styles and colors not available on the retail floor. Easy and reliable scanning helps retailers capitalize on in-the-moment buying intent, and links store associates with retail inventory management systems. Even if the correct size or color is not available in the retail showroom, the barcode can link the physical store with the retailer’s e-commerce site for more options and recommendations, enabling shoppers to immediately buy online.

Adding the Digimarc barcode to all apparel media including hangtags, labels and displays is aimed at elevating the entire purchase journey by ensuring seamless shopper engagement, product discovery, as well as making it easy for shoppers to buy at the point of display without the need for traditional checkout.

The barcode can also be added to hangtags on garments and to retail displays, allowing retailers and brands to maintain aesthetic integrity and provide an engaging customer experience. Since Digimarc Barcode is generally imperceptible to shoppers, there is no need for unsightly QR codes on the tags.

Easier scanning translates into an improved shopping experience with less snags at the front-end and shorter lines.

Digital disruption has resulted in a radical shift in consumer shopping behavior, their beliefs, and expectations. Consumers have become more demanding than ever. Their growing need for ease of shopping, prompt service, and personalised solutions has left retailers with the only option, ‘either go digital or die’. It has become imperative for retailers to redefine their traditional business models, embrace digitisation and unleash tremendous opportunities provided by emerging new ecosystems.

In today’s complex business environment scenario, luxury retailers need to work towards re-inventing consumers’ shopping experience by understanding their pain points, needs, desires, and aspirations. Retailers should embrace technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, smart sensors, computer vision, chatbots and facial recognition to solve problems like counterfeiting, delayed check-outs, queuing, product navigation, waiting time for product returns, delays in online order pick-ups and late order fulfillment.

Darshan Kochar, President,Solapur Garment Manufacturers Association says, Solapur in Maharashtra aims to be the world's uniforms sourcing hub by 2022, with plans to establish 2,000 garment units in the city. Kochar was speaking at the third edition of the 'Uniform, Garment and Fabric Manufacturing Fair 2019. Uniform-manufacturing sector in India is estimated at Rs 18,000 crore per annum, with Rs 10,000 crore from machinery and fabrics while the rest is from sales supplying to local schools through retailers and institutions.

Well-connected across the country with rail and road networks and airports in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, Solapur has emerged as the investment destination in the state for the uniform garment industry in the country. The third edition of the 'Uniform, Garment and Fabric Manufacturing Fair 2019' was held from January 8 to 10 in Bengaluru. The three-day fair promoted Solapur and Maharashtra as the uniforms sourcing hub.

Many overseas buyers from the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia have shown interest in our uniforms. Buyers from the United States, Dubai, Ghana, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam participated in the event.

New research has found that most Japanese apparel companies fall short on human rights issues. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and Human Rights Now, an international human rights NGO based in Japan, surveyed the human rights policies and practices of the top 62 apparel companies operating in Japan.

The survey found that a small number of leading companies have policies and procedures in place to prevent and remedy negative impacts their business activities may have on human rights. Aside from that small group, however, most companies, it was found, are yet to take adequate measures – for example, of the 21 that responded, nine still do not have human rights policies that make concrete reference to international human rights standards.

Several companies have no procedure for remedying human rights abuses, and of those that do, most provide for them only in Japanese. Only four companies that responded to the survey have a remedy procedure accessible in languages other than Japanese.

Of the 21 companies that responded, 12 companies have a human rights policy or procurement guidelines in line with international standards. Among these are Fast Retailing, Gap, H&M, adidas, Asics and Patagonia. On the positive side, several companies stated they have started strengthening their human rights measures, at least partially because of the survey.