The legal spat between Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries over the Reliance-Future deal has invoked a xenophobic fervor amongst watchers by sparking a foreign vs local debate. Amazon has accused the Future Group of violating a contract by agreeing to a sale to the Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries. The dispute has reached the Delhi High Court which is now contemplating if Amazon has any legal rights to object to this transaction. On its part, Amazon urged the high court to impose a business contract in this commercial dispute. The e-commerce giant alleged if Future is allowed to default on its contract with Amazon, it might scare off global investors. India cannot afford to let this happen at a stage when it needs foreign investments the most.

Deal to give Reliance undisputed market share

The deal holds utmost significance for Reliance as it assures the company an undisputed share in the Indian market. However, Amazon is not willing to cede this advantage to Reliance as India with its billion-plus consumers, is one its biggest markets. In the court hearing, Harish Salve, the celebrity lawyer representing Future Retail accused Amazon of threatening Future to either deal only with the e-commerce giant or shut down. And that aborting the Future-Reliance at its current stage would lead to thousands of job losses and bankruptcy. He argued as Amazon has no investment in Future Retail, Reliance is not obliged to seek permission to buy a stake in the company.

Amazon’s counter arguments

Countering these allegations, Gopal Subramanium, Amazon’s lawyer and India’s former attorney general said, Amazon had the right to block this deal as the e-tailer has already introduced Future Retail to a prospective investor to ease its distress. The company also has invested $6.5 billion in India so far besides creating thousands of jobs in the country.

Salve replied the Indian laws do not recognize the transaction between the e-commerce company and the Singapore arbitration tribunal, and the Reliance-Future deal will help save Future Retail from collapse. The lawyer filed a legal petition after Amazon apprised India’s market and antitrust regulators of the Singapore arbitration order of an interim stay.

Last week, Amazon suffered its first setback in the case as the deal was approved by the Competition Commission of India. Reliance now aims to finalize the deal as soon as possible.

Meanwhile media reports suggest, Future Retail’s plea to be excluded from being a party to the Amazon-Future Coupons' arbitration proceedings has been turned down by Court of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) which has ordered the arbitration to proceed. The buzz is FRL had approached SIAC with its pleas the arbitration proceedings were part of a contract to which the company is not a party pleading it be excluded from being a party on account of jurisdiction objection. SIAC says an Economic Times report has decided “the arbitration process shall proceed and accordingly, a tribunal will be constituted in this matter.”

Post COVID-19, the idea of a regional supply chain is taking roots amongst fashion brands. Searching for new alternatives for their current faulty operational systems, brands are increasingly shifting to circular supply chain that also considers environmental impact of clothes, says Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Business of Fashion.

Regional supply chains operate within a certain region rather than being spread out around the globe. They process materials and manufacture clothes within one area of the world. Such an operating system is beneficial for designers, CEOs, and industry leaders. It keeps them connected with customers by ensuring transparency in operations.

Challenges of a regional supply chain

However, regional supply chains also face certain challenges. Use of innovative materials are quite challenging for brands. For instance, designers are unable to use materials like Piñatex, Muskin, and Zoa™due to their inaccessibility. Such materials are available in only certain parts of the world and are expensive.

However, many other technological advancement can benefit brands. For example, The Renewal Workshop offers state-of-the-art technologies that help brands get their businesses off the ground faster, shares Nicole Bassett, Co-Founder. These off-the shelf tools and applications are customized according to brands’ need. The Renewal Workshop also has fully equipped facility to handle all its production in house.

Similarly, Back Beat Co had also hoped to achieve this kind of production initially. However, it soon found the concept quite unsustainable and decided to spread suppliers across the globe with a few local options.

Alliance vs independence

By building such quasi-independent supply chains in the America and Europe, companies like The Renewal Workshop and Back Beat Co aim to provide their suppliers a hedge against future shocks. Such supply chains enable them to easily shift production of key components from one region to another. This combination of thoughtful outsourcing, intentional use of technology and local operations will continue to prevail in future too.

It will create opportunities for small and local manufacturers to imbibe technical innovations, affirms Bassett. To achieve this, brands would need to not just find like-minded international partners but also invest in local materials and production. The future of the industry will hinge on collaboration rather than competition.

According to the New York Times, the cancellation of VAT refunds came as a major shock to UK luxury brands and retailers that have come to depend on spending by foreign travelers as a critical part of their annual sales. Although they make up only 5 per cent of non-E.U. travelers in the United Kingdom, Chinese tourists tip the scales in terms of high-end spending, accounting for nearly a third of VAT refunds. For luxury retailers, the concern for 2021 and beyond is that, even if Chinese tourists are able to resume international travel, they may eschew luxury shopping in London for Paris, Madrid, or somewhere else (including, as we’ve seen this year, at home in China).

While some British brands and department stores are likely to say that the loss of the refund program won’t hurt their business — believing that tourists will still seek out the “experience” of in-in person shopping from quintessentially British brands — this move will be a massive post-holiday “gift” for brands and retailers elsewhere in the European Union.

While some Chinese tourists will buy from British luxury brands that have a small or nonexistent retail presence outside of their home country, department stores such as Harrods and Selfridges, outlet malls like Bicester Village, and multi-brand retailers like Watches of Switzerland will almost certainly see a painful drop in sales to Chinese tourists once tourism to Britain gets back on its feet. And why wouldn’t this be the case?

Witha growing number of luxury watch brands joining Tmall’s Luxury Pavilion, it is feasible that these brands could team up with tourism authorities to collaboratively promote pilgrimages to famed watchmaking regions such as Switzerland’s Jura Arc or Glashütte across various platforms including Taobao Live, or even consider content-commerce avenues such as custom reality shows or discreetly sponsored films and television programs. The sky is the limit — and, ultimately, it is Europe that holds the cards rather than post-Brexit Britain.

The new order for companies located in Zhejiang to temporarily halt production has impacted around 160 energy-intensive companies, mainly in the textile, dyeing and chemical fiber industries. As per an Apparel Resource report, nearly 80 per cent companies in the city’s Ma’an area were ordered to halt production from September 21-30, 2021. The order is aimed at controlling the provincial Government’s energy consumption requirements.

As per original report of Caixin Global, the central government is pressing local authorities to reduce energy consumption as a part of a national green transition strategy to lower emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Beijing aims to reduce national energy consumption per unit of GDP by 13.50 per cent by 2025 besides cutting carbon emissions by 18 per cent for which local Governments have been given specific reduction goals.

In a document issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in August, Zhejiang was amongst several provinces receiving a ‘second-level warning’ which means they face severe challenges to meet the energy targets. Following the order, several publicly traded companies have disclosed production halts and the industry at large has expressed concern as they face short-term business losses due to the production halts.

Although the global textile and apparel market is currently experiencing a deficit in demand, manufacturers should remain future-focused and prepared to meet the preferences of their clients as demands re-surface, says Raj Manek, Executive Director and Board Member, Messe Frankfurt Asia Holdings. “New trends will shape the future of Indian textile and apparel segment in the coming period. Targeting small packets of demand and focusing on shorter turnover time will be an effective strategy for apparel producers to deal with current market inconsistencies, ” he adds

According to him, businesses that can recognise the ebb and flow of the market and focus on adopting sustainability and recyclability in their business models will bounce back more strongly.

Messe Frankfurt through its textile exhibitions advocates sustainability and innovation in fashion and textile industry as a part of its commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in global collaboration with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office.

The need for efficient allocation of costs and materials have also become a strong highlight for Indian apparel segment during the pandemic. Manufacturers must therefore imbibe a circular economy model and repurpose pre and post-consumer waste to save resources as well as minimise expenditure on raw materials and logistic.

Designer masks and protective kits that couple fashion with safety and convenience are rapidly gaining demand across the globe. Similarly consumers are switching from ordinary home apparels to those made with anti-viral fabrics. With increasing awareness towards personal health and hygiene, focusing on anti-viral apparels and face masks will help Indian manufacturers exploit a massive volume of demand, especially from healthcare and hospitality sector.

“Tapping into the urgent needs of the market, identifying future trends and working with a sustainable approach will definitely enable Indian textile and apparel sector to emerge more strongly organised and well-equipped to face the new normal.” concludes Manek.

Alejandro Laquidain, has been appointed President of GINETEX, the International Group for Textile Care Labeling. He succeeds to Adam Mansell, CEO of UKFT in the United Kingdom.

Laquidain, has been Chairman of the Lakidain family group since 1985, a company that specializes in the production of lace, tulle, satin, accessories and a widevariety of fabrics. Over his previous years, Alejandro Laquidain has built a significant professional experience in the textile industry. He occupied different mandates as President in the following Spanish organizations in the period between 2008 and 2019: AsociaciónNacional de Fabricantes de Tules, Bordados y Encajes (TBE), FederaciónTextilSedera (FTS), Confederación de la IndustriaTextil – TEXFOR and ConsejoIntertextilEspañol (CIE). Alejandro Laquidain was also a member of the Board of Directors of EURATEX (The European Apparel and Textile Confederation) from 2013 to 2018, the Confederación Española de OrganizacionesEmpresariales (CEOE) from 2012 to 2016, and the Catalan organization FomentodelTrabajoNacional from 2011 to 2018.

As a member of the Board of Directors of ConsejoIntertextilEspañol (CIE) – the National Committee representing GINETEX in Spain since 2016 – he has served as Vice-President of GINETEX for the past year. He is also currently member of the boards of FederaciónTextilSedera (FTS), and Confederaciónde la IndustriaTextil – TEXFOR. Born in Barcelona in 1958, Alejandro Laquidain holds a degree in textile engineering, with a specialization in warp fabrics, obtained in Obertshausen (Germany).

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will provide business opportunities that will enable African countries to lift citizens of the continent out of poverty post COVID-19, John Rocha, Chief Director, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) Trade and Invest Africa said.

He was speaking during a virtually held outward trade and investment seminar, held on November 25 and 26, which aimed to increasing bilateral trade and investment between Ethiopia and South Africa.

Rocha said,strengthening bilateral trade relations between South Africa and Ethiopia was a critical step that would be mutually beneficial to both economies, adding that South Africa’s strategic relationship with Ethiopia rested on three pillars - industrialisation, infrastructure development and strengthening bilateral and intra-Africa trade.

Rocha added that the AfCFTA was a critical foundation upon which intra-Africa trade should be built, saying that it represented an opportunity for African countries to boost growth, reduce poverty and broaden economic inclusion.

He described his country as a place endowed with great diversity of plant, animal and microbial genetic resources and one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a 10 percent growth average over the past 14 years.

He highlighted textiles and apparel, an integrated sugar industry, agroprocessing and pharmaceuticals as some of the priority sectors the country had identified for industrial development.

US’s extension of Indonesia’s Generalized System of Preference (GSP) status from early November 2020, will allow it to push up apparel trade to $500 billion over the next five years. This extension will make 13 per cent of Indonesia’s exports duty-free. In 2019, around 10 per cent of Indonesia’s total $20.1 billion of exports to the US were placed under GSP exemptions.

The US is seeking new ways to cooperate with Indonesia in areas, such as maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region. It is already Indonesia’s second-largest non-oil and gas export partner, with total two-way trade in goods reaching $30 billion in 2019.

The government is also encouraging US companies to invest in Indonesia, especially in areas such as manufacturing, services, pharmaceuticals, and defense. It is preparing a 4,000-hectare industrial park, named the Batang Industrial Park, in Central Java province to accommodate US businesses looking to shift all or part of their operations out of China. US companies are offered special tax incentives in this zone.

Ashwin Chandran, President, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), has urged the Centre to remove anti-dumping duty (ADD) on viscose fiber and make the Man Made Fiber (MMF) segment eligible for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Currently India has a negligible share in 50 items, identified to be eligible for the scheme, in the global market. On the other hand, Bangladesh and Vietnam have 7 per cent and 6.4 per cent shares respectively. Indian textile industry requires almost 6.34 lakh tonne of viscose fiber in FY20 and the fiber available for consumption from local capacities is 4.78 lakh tonne, he said.

M Senthil Kumar, Former Chairman, SIMA says, since viscose fiber attracts anti-dumping duty textile industry imports of viscose yarn are on the rise. Hence, if ADD on fiber is removed for viscose and linen, more spindles will be engaged in production of these yarns and domestic local power loom industry would get the yarn at a lower price, he adds. He therefore, urged the government to remove the ADD at fiber level and treat all fibers equally.

Sri Lanka's largest apparel body, the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) is confident of the country's apparel exports reviving by next year aided by the government's support. As per Tuli Cooray, Secretary General, although COVID-19 wiped out close to $1 billion turnover, resilience had always been the cornerstone for the apparel industry. Hence, the association does not plan to revisit its targets at the moment even it has a very challenging year for the entire world.

Cooray expects the country’s apparel exports to decline 30 percent this year, just over $4 billion. However, he believes, the apparel sector will come out of this crisis stronger than before," he added. According to official figures, Sri Lanka last year earned $5.3 billion from apparel exports, an increase of 5.1 per cent from 2018. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry originally expected a 6 per cent increase in exports for 2020.