As countries participating in the BRI initiative are expected to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year, China’s textile industry needs to accelerate the adjustment of its products, capacity and trade structure to better integrate regional development in the next stage.
The RCEP will further enrich regional cooperative content in areas such as digital economy and intellectual property protection, paving the way for future cooperation among industries across the mega trade bloc. The rise of emerging markets such as Vietnam, India and Bangladesh has also changed the division pattern of labor and trade in the global textile business.
As data from Beijing-based CNTAC reveals: affected by weak demand from developed markets and the rise of protectionism, China’s textile and apparel exports dropped 2.2 per cent year-on-year to $232.31 billion between January and October last year.
In the meantime, the country’s shipments to the US, the EU and Japan declined by 4.5 per cent, 5 per cent and 5.5 per cent year-on-year respectively, while its total exports to countries and regions participating in the BRI grew by 1.3 per cent, and exports to Africa jumped 6.6 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
