In 2017, Pakistan’s share in world exports of garments was a meager 1.10 per cent.
The primary reason for this poor performance is the narrow export base, which is tilted towards low value-added unsophisticated items. The top six products exported by Pakistan account for 52 per cent of Pakistan’s exports, but only 20 per cent of total world garment exports.

World demand has been shifting to manmade fiber, which Pakistan has been unable to exploit. In addition, Pakistan’s garment exports are not well diversified in terms of destinations. Almost 88 per cent of the country’s garment exports are destined for the European Union and the United States.

Pakistan faces higher production costs and lower productivity compared to its peers. High production costs are in the form of import duty on cotton and manmade fibers, high energy tariffs and minimum wage. This has led to fierce competition with other low-wage competitors leading to small export orders for Pakistan.

Unfavorable tariffs restrict market access. Its currency in the recent past was overvalued with respect to the dollar, making exports less competitive against China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Other impediments include poor access to credit, delay in the payment of tax refunds, low technological adoption, and time-consuming export procedures.

Mexico has refused to approve the labor-reform bill as a necessary step to ratifying the new North American free-trade pact ill the Trump administration lifts the punishing tariffs it has imposed on Mexican steel and aluminum imports.

The push to improve workers' rights in Mexico was a key priority for Canada and the United States during the NAFTA renegotiation as they wanted to level the playing field between their workers and lower-paid Mexican workers, especially in the auto sector.

The new Mexican government wants to rafity its ackage of labor reforms in Mexico's Congress before its April 30 adjournment to reflect the commitments that it made under the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement in domestic legislation. But that won't happen unless the United States lifts its section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum exports.

US President Donald Trump had imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum from Mexico and Canada, using the controversial national-security clause in US trade law -- "Section 232," that both countries say was illegal.

Within five years Maharashtra will have enough spinning mills to process the raw cotton grown by its farmers.
At present the state can process only 30 per cent of its cotton.

In the past, spinning mills were set up in parts of Maharashtra that were not cotton producing. The new policy ensures this mismatch is done away with and the foundation of a properly planned cotton-to-cloth chain development is laid.

Some 115 tehsils have been declared as cotton growing areas in Maharashtra.

Out of these, as many as 55 tehsils are in Vidarbha region alone. A tehsil is defined as one with cotton production of 9,600 tons per annum. This is the amount of cotton production needed to sustain a co-operative spinning mill.

The objective of the decision is to identify tehsils where co-operative spinning mills can be set up under the new textile policy. The decision of declaring 115 tehsils as cotton growing will have a long-term impact on the growth of the textile sector in a planned manner.

The state has made provisions to infuse higher seed capital and incentives for textile entrepreneurs. The market will be strengthened through the farm to fashion policy.

The decision to keep electricity tariff rates low for textile traders has made the sector, especially the handloom industry, more competitive.

Indonesia and Australia recently signed an FTA that eliminates many tariffs, allows Australian-owned hospitals to operate in the giant Southeast Asian country and increases work visas for young Indonesians.

The agreement is subject to ratification in both countries. Indonesia would complete ratification by the end of this year. It will allow Australian companies to have majority ownership of investments in various industries in Indonesia, including health care, telecommunications, energy, mining and aged care.

Nearly 99 per cent of Australia’s exports to Indonesia by value will be tariff-free or have improved preferential access by 2020, up from 85 percent under an existing trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and 10 Southeast Asian countries. Indonesian exports to Australia will face no tariffs, but it already enjoys substantially tariff-free access to the Australian market under the Southeast Asia agreement.

Separately, Indonesia is planning to allow foreign companies to invest in higher education, where the country is lagging far behind international standards.

The agreement will increase Australia's live cattle exports. Its exports to Indonesia will increase to 4 per cent a year till reaching 700,000.

Australian working holiday visas for young Indonesians will be increased to 6,000 a year from the current 1,000 over six years.

Bangladesh knit sector saw great growth in 2018. According to economists and business leaders, calmness in the country’s political arena, the US-China trade war, and improvement in safety conditions in the ready-made garment factories were main reasons behind the increase of knit export.

Bangladesh knit sector produces top quality knit garments at lowest costs. There are a total of 4,560 garments factories in Bangladesh exporting apparel products in the global market, of them about 2500 are knit garment factories.

With almost all major retailers, Bangladesh has a significant market share in cotton & cotton-rich knit products for the last 16 years. World’s leading brands are sourcing knit garments from Bangladesh like H&M, Walmart, C&A, Zara etc.

Bangladesh exports numerous popular knit items to the global market. Recently Bangladeshi knit manufacturers have concentrated on making value-added items to sustain strongly in the global arena.

India’s e-commerce marketplace is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 32 per cent.
Factors responsible for this growth include changing purchase patterns, high-intensity online shopping and heightened use of smart phones.

Mobile commerce is growing at an exponential pace. The millennial population has mostly championed this trend across Tier I, II and Tier III markets.

Social media-related commerce in India has been on the rise, with 28 per cent millennials purchasing products due to social media recommendations and 63 per cent millennials staying updated on brands through social media.

Experiential retail offerings have picked up with the use of advanced data analytics, bots and drones, beacons, cloud platforms and virtual reality to understand consumer needs.

Despite the stress faced by the Indian rupee and the rising crude oil bill, the Indian retail market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.8 per cent between 2021 and 2026. Given the strong retail and consumer outlook, India is expected to witness redefining trends in the consumer market which will shape the future of the retail industry. The share of the organised retail market is expected to increase from 12 per cent in 2017 to about 25 per cent by 2021.

India’s children’s wear exports to the US grew 6.52 per cent from January to October ’18.
India is the only country which increased its value-wise share, while all other countries declined their share on a year on year basis. All the top Asian exporting nations saw a fall in their respective value-wise exports in the children’s wear segment to the US.

The share of China, Bangladesh and Vietnam dwindled by 3.23 per cent, 2.50 per cent and 2.52 per cent respectively and the declining trend of these countries helped India capture the shift especially from China which caters to 47 per cent of the children’s wear demand in the US.

Some Indian manufacturers who had previously been focusing solely on the export market have started reorienting themselves to meet the growing demand within the country.

Within India, by 2023, children’s wear retail is projected to constitute almost 22 per cent of the total apparel business in India. The 0 to 14 years group amounts to around 29 per cent of the total population.

This market in India is mostly dominated by private labels -- big retailers, international brands and just a handful of home-grown mono brands. Organised brands comprise only a miniscule of the overall children’s wear market.

India’s apparel exports in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 remained lower than the average quarterly exports during the past five years.
India continues to experience headwinds in the form of intense competitive pressures from nations having a cost advantage. While China, the world’s largest apparel manufacturer and exporter, continues to shed market share in global trade, India has not been able to capitalise on the opportunity. Instead, a large chunk has been garnered by Bangladesh and Vietnam, the second and the third largest apparel exporting nations globally.

The EU-Vietnam FTA can weaken India’s competitive positioning in one of the key apparel markets, accounting for 37 per cent of India’s apparel exports in 2018. Bangladesh, which enjoys a duty-free access to the EU market since 2001 under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences, has been able to expand its market share in EU from less than seven per cent in 2001 to 20 per cent at present. But India has been barely able to maintain its share at six per cent or seven per cent.

Indian exports are set to recover with internal challenges and abrupt pressures subsiding, though the pace of recovery is likely to remain muted considering the challenging environment.

According to Javed Siddiqi, Director, Stylo-a ladies footwear, prêt and accessories brand, the uneven strategies adopted by large export-based textile groups in Pakistan followed by non-textile retailers is affecting the fashion retail segment in the country.

Javed Siddiqi noted that retail growth in the country has slowed down and currently ranges between 8 per cent and 10 per cent, with the potential to rise once again but with some changes. The decline in growth rate was the combination of many factors, some of which were the result of government’s policies and a few due to the industry’s own practices.

According to Siddiqi, the retail sector’s business calendar runs for almost 330 days. Of these, various brands offer discounts for 220 to 250 days, which leaves a mere 80 to 100 days in a year for them to display and sell their products at the full price range, putting almost all major brands under pressure. Many brands fail to learn the retail phenomenon, which gives profits in the first year, but in the following years, many retailers overbuy to maintain inventory, which causes serious cash flow issues and they opt to clear their stock under the banner of sales.

He emphasised the need for developing new retail clusters across Pakistan, so the pressure on mega cities may ease and shift to other retail clusters.

According to a report from Coresight Research, the global adaptive apparel could reach $288.7 billion globally this year and grow to $349.9 billion in four years. In the U.S. alone, the market will grow to $54.8 billion by 2023.

Adaptive apparel addresses the needs raised by a variety of situations, including some disabilities and health conditions; mobility, sensory or motor processing difficulties; and various medical treatments. According to WHO’s 2011 World Report on Disability, around 785 million people aged 15 and older have a disability.

The retail think tank notes that more brands have moved into the market in recent years, including Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Target, and Zappos, which launched collections in 2016 and 2017. Last year, U.K. department store Marks & Spencer debuted a children's Easy Dressing line and Nike a self-lacing basketball shoe operated with a smartphone