China, the European Union and India were the world’s top three exporters of textiles in 2018 The top three accounted for 66.9 per cent of world textile exports in 2018. The United States was the world’s fourth top textile exporter in 2018. China, the European Union, Bangladesh, and Vietnam were the top four largest apparel exporters. Altogether, these top four accounted for as much as 72.3 per cent of world market shares in 2018.

The European Union, the United States, and China were the top three largest importers of textiles in 2018, accounting for 37.5 per cent of the world’s total textile imports that year. The increasing diversification of textile import markets is associated with the shifting pattern of world apparel manufacturing and exports.

The European Union, the United States, and Japan were the world’s top three importers of apparel in 2018. Altogether, these top three absorbed 61.5 per cent of world apparel in 2018, which, however, was lower than 62.3 per cent in 2017 and a significant drop from 84 per cent back in 2005. It is not that consumers in the EU, the US and Japan are importing less clothing. Instead, several emerging economies, such as China, are becoming fast-growing apparel consumption markets and starting to import more.