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Now that the US is more or less out of the TPP, Japan is mobilizing remaining members. Japan, as leader, is seeking a path forward for free trade in Asia. This country is now the largest member of TPP. A revived TPP with Japan at the head could dent China’s hegemony in the region.
The pact would boost Japan’s real gross domestic product by 1.11 per cent. Preserving the TPP could also stem the anti-globalist tide that has swept the world in the form of Trump’s ascent and the UK’s move to leave the European Union.
The new US administration has taken a fairly short-term approach to trade, showing little interest in creating rules for free trade under multilateral framework -- the founding principle of the TPP. Japan's plan of advancing that cause with other nations and dealing with the US one-on-one for now leaves room for an American return to the framework in future.
However, a revamped TPP does present tough questions for Japan, such as what to do with import quotas for rice and milk that were set with eleven trading partners, including the US, in mind. Japan will also face the challenge of responding to US requests one-on-one for greater market liberalization than the TPP would have provided.
The Directorate General Customs Valuation (DGCV) has reviewed textile invisible coated lining material fabric and textile lining material fabric customs duty under section of 25(9) 1969. There last time a determination of textile lining material took place was in year 2013, so, a revision was done according to trends prevailing in the current international market.
Meetings were held in the month of January, February, and April for undertaking the review. Every stakeholder was requested to submit relevant documents. However, due to different gram-mages, thicknesses of a sample the documents were not submitted by any stakeholder and importers and representative of trade organizations argued that prices of an item differ globally. The highest stress was on textile invisible coated fabric which is similar item is being assessed and released at the lesser rate ranging from $2.30 to 2.65 which has twisted un-stability in the local market.
Later, various methods such as: valuation methods, transaction value method, identical/similar goods value methods were accepted by the Directorate. But these could not be exclusively relied on. Thereafter, market inquiry as envisaged under Section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, was conducted. Online values were checked and conversion costs from constituent material at the country of export were not available as computed value method in section 25(8) of the Customs Act, 1969 could not get applied. All the information was evaluated and analyzed for the purpose of determination of customs values. Accordingly, the Custom values of textile lining material fabric and textile invisible coated lining material fabric were determined under the Section 25(9) of the Customs Act, 1969.
American outdoor apparel company, Patagonia, has come out with a HyperPuff line, comprising hoodies, parkas, and jackets. Patagonia’s latest line combines the best of both synthetic and down.
Down creates a tangible area of warmth around the body but it’s useless when wet. Synthetic materials continue to insulate even while exposed to moderately wet conditions and provide excellent breathability during vigorous physical activity.
But one of the biggest problems with synthetic insulation is its lifespan and inability to retain loft over time, as opposed to regular down, which typically lasts decades. So the HyperPuff line features a synthetic puff jacket that actually puffs, mimicking the warmth of goose down while upholding the increased durability offered by synthetic materials.
Hyper Puff does not use Primaloft insulation. The insulation was developed internally with another supplier in Asia who had access to a special non-woven machine which orients fibers vertically instead of horizontally, like traditional insulation. The product’s unique ability to compress and spring back to life is unprecedented, allowing for easy transport of an otherwise bulky jacket in a small stuff sack. When removed from the sack, the jacket puffs up immediately.
The decision between wearing synthetic or down in the coldest and wettest of places no longer remains a compromise. HyperPuff provides the best of both worlds and ensures continuous warmth — even when wet.
Bangladesh’s apparel exports to nontraditional markets declined sharply in the third quarter of the current fiscal. Reason: sluggish global demand, low unit price of garment pieces and high duty in these markets. Exports of readymade garments to non-traditional markets grew by 1.57 per cent in the July-March period of the fiscal year 2016-17.
The nontraditional markets are: Australia, Japan, China, Chile, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Malaysia, Korea, India and Turkey. Exports to Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Korea dropped 26.97 per cent, 16.97 per cent, 16.86 per cent and 14.87 per cent July-March 2016-17 fiscal compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal.
While shipments to Australia and India declined by more than seven per cent, exports to Japan and Turkey witnessed a meager growth of 2.11 per cent and 0.29 per cent. On the whole, exports of readymade garments to non-traditional markets grew 1.57 per cent in the July-March period of the fiscal year 2016-17.
On the other hand, income from some traditional and major markets such as Belgium, UK, USA and Canada fell by 6.89 per cent, 6.85 per cent, 7.56 per cent and 6.41 per cent during July-March 2016-17 fiscal.
Telangana is preparing a handloom directory. This will have complete details of the condition of handloom weavers and the sector, including the number of handlooms, handloom weavers and workers, production capacity etc. with full capacity and estimates. Based on this, special policies would be formulated for the handloom, power loom and textile sectors.
Subsidy will be extended to weavers by linking it to their Aadhaar and biometric identity. Subsidy benefits will be directly credited to the accounts of the handloom weavers. The existing handloom workers will be protected, and if some workers want to shift to other sectors, cooperation will be extended to them. Loan with special subsidy will be extended to those contemplating to shift to other remunerative sectors. A 50 per cent subsidy on yarn will be given to handloom weavers.
Data on how many weavers weave silk, cotton and grey cloth will be collected. They will be given opportunities to sell their products not only to the government but the outside market. The state will set up its own handloom depots in addition to National Handloom Development Corporation yarn depots and provide more benefits to the weavers. There are 17,000 handlooms in Telangana and 14,300 are geo-tagged.
Pakistan’s textile industry wants Chinese investment. The hope is to enter into successful joint ventures to benefit from each others’ entrepreneurial potential. The two countries are planning to enter into joint ventures for 1,00,000 spindles, 500 airjet looms and fabric dyeing and printing plants in Pakistan.
Chinese companies are looking mainly at the cement, steel, energy and textile sectors, the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. Chinese firms are eager to expand abroad at a time when growth has slowed at home. Pakistan has offered a package to the exporting industry with an added attraction of 12 to 15 per cent for producing and manufacturing in Pakistan.
To ease the cost of doing business, the country has announced an export-led growth package encompassing provision of drawback of local taxes and levies at four per cent on yarn and greig fabric, five per cent on processed fabric, six per cent on textile made ups, seven per cent on textile garments against realisation of exports.
The foreign investment policy offers zero per cent duty on imports of capital goods, zero per cent corporate income tax rate, 10 years’ corporate income tax holiday, 50 acres minimum land required for special economic zones and permission of 100 per cent private ownership.
Mimaki will participate at Texprocess and Techtextil, Germany, May 9 to 12, 2017. The manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting systems will showcase its TS300P-1800 with sublimation inks and the Tx300P-1800 printer with pigment inks during the large-format inkjet printing step of the micro-factory, involving sublimation printing on polyester and pigment printing on cotton and mixed fibers.
Both have been developed for the textile print industry. The TS300P-1800 wide format, high-speed dye sublimation textile printer delivers cost-effective printing while maintaining high quality and productivity and is designed to print onto the thinnest of transfer paper. The Tx300P-1800 direct textile inkjet printer delivers high-quality printing on a wide range of textiles and is ideally suited for applications such as fashion, furnishing, soft signage and exhibitions.
Texprocess serves the international garment-manufacturing and textile processing industry while Techtextil brings together technical textiles and nonwovens showing the full range of potential uses of textile technologies. The events will allow Mimaki to demonstrate its textile inkjet print technologies and educate a wide audience. There will be a roundtable discussion on high speed dye sublimation printing which will explain the difference between sublimation transfer and direct dye sublimation printing, and how each technology can be beneficial for home textiles and interior design.
The Kufner Group, a technical fabrics producer, offers innovative textile solutions. The XShield, Kufner’s solution against electromagnetic radiation, has a variety of applications in different markets: from fashion and casual wear to home textiles, automotive, military, sports, health all the way to building and electronic industry uses. The XShield technology can also protect against unauthorised access via RFID-data-theft. Kufner will demonstrate some of these solutions at Techtextil, Germany, May 9 to 12, 2017.
The THS (textile heating systems) technology developed by Kufner has been used in automotive interiors in the field of dashboards, steering wheels and seats. Besides apparel applications, such as active sports or healthcare, Kufner technology can provide heating for the artificial grass of a football field or geo textiles in greenhouses.
In the next few years, Kufner wants to establish new applications for its THS technology. Kufner is known for technically advanced fusible interlinings and shaping canvas across the high-quality fashion sector. The majority of Kufner’s woven, knitted and nonwoven interlinings go into menswear.
Kufner is also world’s leading in stabilising leather for car seats and upholstery. All renowned car producers use the refined technology to maintain the natural elasticity of leather while simultaneously achieving the required stability.
Spanish company specialising in the development of sustainable technologies for garment finishing Jeanologia recently conducted a master class on laser design for denim finishing at the Amsterdam Jean School to promote decontamination, automation and efficiency in the denim industry. The Blue Lab, the Jean School testing laboratory, employs technology developed by Jeanologia Laser and Ozone, and offers training and workshops on technological innovation to students, manufacturers, brands and designers who want to contribute in the transformation of the denim industry towards transparency and sustainability.
The company also introduced students to the profitable and sustainable G2 ozone technology, which has been developed to drastically reduce water, chemical and energy use in the denim finishing processes.
Students also discussed the importance of choosing the right fabric and the new Jeanologia Light Sensitive Fabric Test, the study that analyses how denim fabric reacts to new sustainable processes, especially the laser, in order to achieve desired washings and looks.
The digital revolution is changing the world of jeans. Amsterdam is the epicenter of training future designers toward a sustainable and efficient model of denim production. The company will showcase the possibilities of customisation of a denim garment with its Nano technology.
"In 2016, production of US man-made fibre and filament, textiles, and apparel shipments was nearly $75 billion, an 11 per cent increase from 2009, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations, which recently released its ‘2017 State of the Industry Address’. It has been a fairly stable and strong environment for about five or six years. But the market has been flat for 18 months due to sluggishness in the global and US economies and the uncertainty in the retail sector, opines Auggie Tantillo, President & Chief Executive, NCTO."
In 2016, production of US man-made fibre and filament, textiles, and apparel shipments was nearly $75 billion, an 11 per cent increase from 2009, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations, which recently released its ‘2017 State of the Industry Address’. It has been a fairly stable and strong environment for about five or six years. But the market has been flat for 18 months due to sluggishness in the global and US economies and the uncertainty in the retail sector, opines Auggie Tantillo, President & Chief Executive, NCTO.
Yarns and fabrics accounted for $30.3 billion, or nearly half the shipments sent out, while carpet, home furnishings fabrics and other non-apparel sewn products made up $24 billion in revenues. Apparel came in at $12.7 billion. One of US textile industry’s saviors has been free-trade agreements that require that regional yarns and fabric be used in production. Of the $13 billion man-made fibre, yarn and fabrics exported from the US, a big chunk, $4.4 billion, is sent to Mexico, $1.6 billion to Canada, and another $1.3 billion is earmarked for Honduras. The Dominican Republic receives $759 million in shipments. All these countries are members of either the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Dominican Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement. Tantillo says the US textile industry exports about 40 per cent of its production and more than half goes to Mexico, Canada and Central America. Still, there are ways to increase US textiles exports to free-trade partners.
US trade agreements: NAFTA
Currently, Mexico is allowed to import 45 million sq. m. equivalent of yarn and fabric a year from places such as China, which it normally uses up halfway through the year. Canada has an annual allotment of 88 million sq. m, although it most recently used only about 25 million of that. When Trump discusses changes to NAFTA, the US textile industry would like to see these trade-preference levels eliminated. Doing away with these loopholes would undoubtedly boost US textile exports, textile producers said.
When NAFTA was being negotiated more than 25 years ago, Canada asked for a TPL because it did not have a strong textile industry. Still, the US textile industry believes NAFTA is a pillar upon which the US textile supply chain has been able to grow. Canada and Mexico are the biggest US textile markets. Also, Mexico has a lot of apparel factories sewing clothing for retailers and manufacturers who need a quick turnaround on goods.
Domestic push
The US textile industry would like to see several steps taken to encourage more domestic production. It also fully supports the Trump administration’s call to negotiate more bilateral free-trade agreements that would have yarn-forward regulations encouraging the use of American fibers, yarns and fabrics. However, the trade group is opposed to a free-trade agreement with Vietnam, now the No. 2 maker of clothing imported into the United States.
Vietnam, which is turning into a cheap alternative to China, is a Communist-run country that has a non-market economy, NCTO maintains, and would heavily disrupt the US textile industry if goods were allowed to enter the country duty-free. The US textile industry is hoping to add boost and create employment in the sector.
Strong recovery
The US textile industry is recovering from the hard times experienced in the late 1990s through the early part of the 21st century, when business was dropping 10 per cent each year. A confluence of events started in late 1999, when the Asian currency crisis occurred and practically every Asian currency collapsed by 30 to 40 per cent, causing exports to surge to the US. Then China joined the WTO in 2001, Tantillo recalled. But things are turning around. Investments in US textile fibre, yarn, fabric and other non-apparel textile production grew to $1.7 billion in 2015, a 75 per cent rise from the $960 million invested in 2009. There is a positive outlook for the industry, Tantillo said.
