The International Apparel Sourcing Show in New York was kicked off by hundreds of textile and apparel makers from China. The figure this year was up 30 per cent compared to last year as these companies are looking to get a foothold in new niche markets in the US. The show being held at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center, Manhattan has over 600 Chinese companies and around 1,000 companies from 20 countries participating and showcasing their products.

Sun Ruizhe, Vice Chairman of the China National Textile and Apparel Council pointed out China’s textile and apparel sector was undergoing a change and more Chinese companies were focusing on the overseas market. This was partly because of the saturation in China. Chinese consul-general in New York Zhang Qiyue also expressed his happiness about China’s presence at the show, which showed that the future of China-US trade and economic cooperation in the textile and apparel industry was promising.

China’s textile and fabric industry’s contribution to the US-China bilateral relations was huge. Bilateral textile and apparel commerce grew from $6.2 billion to $46 billion from 2000-2014. Exports from China to the US increased a little from January to May this year, as per the National Bureau of Statistics. In April 2015, exports of textiles and apparel to the US increased by 7.8 per cent.