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The EU will suspend trading terms for Bangladesh and disqualify it for trade privileges if it finds evidence of labor rights abuses or systematic repression of trade union rights. Bangladesh has a long history of trade union repression.
But recent months have been characterised by a significant upturn in violent repression. In December 2016, spontaneous wage strikes were met with mass dismissals, raids on trade union offices and the arrest of over 30 labor leaders.
While an agreement in February 2017 brought about the end of detentions, labor leaders continue to face charges and thereby a possible prison sentence and workers have still not been reinstated following their dismissals six months ago. Moreover, recent examples of violence and even death threats against labor activists demonstrate that the climate for labor advocates’ work remains extremely dangerous.
Clean Clothes Campaign is highly concerned about recent physical attacks, threats and criminal charges against leaders and members of trade unions in Bangladesh. The European Union has warned Bangladesh that continued non-compliance might harm the trade benefits that Bangladesh currently enjoys under the Everything but Arms category.
Bangladesh has been repeatedly given deadlines for honoring commitments but is yet to formulate a clear plan for labor law reform.
Assam will soon formulate a textile policy to boost the handloom and textile sector. The proposed policy will focus on integrating production and marketing of handloom and textile products, empowering weavers and making a niche for handicrafts of the state in the global market.
A state of the art emporium will be set up showcasing the unique and attractive fabrics of all communities of the state. Pragmatic strategies will be formulated to empower rural weavers, marketing of products as well as motivating young entrepreneurs to take up the trade.
A chain-linked exhibition system is being planned covering all districts of Assam for proper marketing of the handicrafts. Assam’s handloom industry is basically silk oriented. Four varieties of silk worms and their host-plants, mulberry, Eri, Muga and Oak Tassar, are popular and important for economic and commercial purposes. Nearly 90 per cent of the silk produced is from the mulberry sector only.
Fabrics from Assam include the hand-woven fabrics of cotton, muga, pat (mulberry silk) and eri (endi). Muga has a natural golden texture, mildly warm and is particularly suited for winters. Zari work on Muga silk fabrics were woven for royalty, but today zari has been replaced by multi-colored cotton threads. Cotton textiles include bedspreads, furnishing material, mekhala, chaddars, shawls and saris.
J Thulasidharan, chairman, CITI welcomed the announcement and revision of GST rates on job work of textile yarn and fabric manufacturing activity from 18 to 5 per cent, but raised plenty of concerns and apprehensions on GST rates applicable on various sectors of textile industry.
This will reduce service tax on job work and bringing relief to the textile industry from the extra burden as majority of the work of textile manufacturing is with SMEs and is carried on through job works especially in the power loom, knitting, processing and garment manufacturing sectors. This would now help SMEs of power loom, knitting and processing sectors not to face much financial burden. Job work under textile sector after producing grey fabric or after producing yarn are taken as services and were subjected to 18 per cent GST.
“Under such situation, the manufacturer who does not have integrated composite units to complete the process of embroidery, doubling, printing and finishing as per the market requirements would have been in great loss as high taxed would have added to their cost and dented their profitability” said CITI chairman.
Chairman CITI also thanked the Government and GST Council on behalf of textile industry for increasing turnover from Rs. 50 Lakh to Rs. 75 Lakh under composition scheme for traders and manufacturers which will help MSME to grow their business and carry out their activities efficiently.
Concerns for the other sectors
But he expressed his apprehensiveness about the made-up and garment sector as the job work related to these still come under 18 per cent service tax slab. This will have a serious implication on the cost escalation of the final goods of made-up and garments and will be uncompetitive in the domestic and international market. CITI requested GST Council to reconsider this on urgent basis and bring them also under the 5 per cent GST slab.
With regard to some of the speciality textile fabrics like impregnated, coated, covered or laminated of cotton still remain under 12 per cent GST slab which is unsustainable and will be having huge bearing on the final cost. The Micro dot coating that is done only sustains about 1.3 to 1.4 per cent of input credit. A jump from 5 per cent GST to 12 per cent of GST on an input credit of 1.3 per cent will inflate the product cost as the industry will not be able to absorb the same. CITI expressed its view that it would be justifiable to retain the same at 5 per cent GST slab.
CITI reiterated confederation’s unmet demand of reducing GST on Man-made fibres and yarns to 12 per cent or refund inverted tax at fabric stage which will have win-win situation both for industry and government. If 12 per cent rate is imposed on MMF/Synthetic fibre and yarn industry then textile manufacturers would be able to bear the cost and Government would be having no revenue loss also.
In case, government is unable to revise the MMF rates, then refund of unutilized credit accumulated must be allowed at the stage of fabric manufacturing to the extent of 5 per cent. This has been provisioned under the GST Act where GST Council has been given the power to recommend for the refund of unutilized credit under inverted duty structure case.
He also highlighted the issue of delay in the transfer of input tax credits and inverted duty structure problem of the industry at fabric stage which will aggravate the problem of working capital requirement of the industry.
Though e-commerce players are expecting a surge in exports after the roll-out of GST, industry stakeholders feel there is a need to expand the categories for benefits under the export policy.
Under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), introduced by the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, the commerce ministry gives benefits to several products as duty credit scrips. However, the category of products in e-commerce exports, which are eligible for those benefits, is very limited.
The policy is limited to only six categories. It does not expand to gems and jewelry or any new category. It is a challenge for a very small or a medium-sized player to come online because they do not understand the policy clearly.
The subsuming of major central and state taxes in GST, complete and comprehensive set-off of input goods and services and phasing out of central sales tax would reduce the cost of locally manufactured goods and services.
This will increase the competitiveness of Indian goods and services in the international market and give a boost to exports.
A few players in the e-commerce sector feel that under the current foreign trade policy, there is a lack of clarity in terms of e-commerce exports.
In the first four months of 2017, Vietnam’s exports to Russia grew by 78.2 per cent. The two-way trade value in 2016 was up 25 per cent over 2015. In the first four months of 2017, it climbed 30 per cent year on year.
Garment and textile exports from Vietnam to Russia were up 146.47 per cent year on year followed by coffee. However coffee exports to Russia fell 18.14 per cent on year.
In addition, Vietnam’s exports of electronic devices were up 16.6 per cent and exports of footwear to Russia were up 10.82 per cent. Vietnamese companies are investing in Russia. To date, Vietnam has about 20 investment projects with a total registered capital of nearly three billion dollars in Russia.
Vietnam-Russia economic cooperation has been strengthened in the areas of trade, investment, oil and gas, and electricity. The two-way trade has been on the rise and forms of cooperation and investment have also been increasingly diversified.
More opportunities for bilateral cooperation are expected especially when the two countries adopt bilateral payment in domestic currencies.
The Texworld USA, one of the largest sourcing event will be held on July 17th to 19th 2017 at the Javits Convention Center on the East Coast for apparel fabric buyers, research and product development specialists, designers, merchandisers and overseas sourcing professionals. Being the 11th year attendees of the three-day event will also be able to take advantage of one-stop-shopping under one roof with the return of the Apparel Sourcing USA manufacturing services show and the debut of Avanprint USA digital print show. This must-attend fashion and apparel industry event combines three, top tier shows, co-located for convenience and efficiency, all in the heart of the City.
More than 540 international exhibitors along with 16 categories, attendees can satisfy all their womenswear, menswear and childrenswear needs including eco-friendly fabrics, innovative performance offerings and more. There will be more than 200 exhibitors who will be participating in the show.
In the meantime, the Texworld USA free educational seminar offerings focuses on social media marketing, fiber development, sustainability and global sourcing. Due to popularity, the show will also bring back the Texworld USA Floor Sessions this season.
The Research Row section allows attendees to search complimentary business development tools, recycling solutions, 3D printers and other important educational materials. Additional inspiration can be found at the Texworld SHOWCASE on color and material trends. The show will also focus on casual and formal shirting and suiting.
the Apparel Sourcing USA show looks forward to three days of business, networking and education, connecting attendees with suppliers specializing in women’s, men’s and children’s ready to wear and accessories. Jennifer Baconthe director of the show stated that they are seeing an interest in western hemisphere sourcing grow each season and are focusing in getting high quality manufacturers from Mexico and South America to the show floor and we look forward to introducing our buyers to new sourcing options.
As Texworld USA celebrates its 10th anniversary, the show is proud to bring apparel industry professionals the best in textile design and fabric sourcing with three crucial, interrelated shows, under one roof, over the same three days at the Javits Convention Center.
The East African Community (EAC) has agreed to a three-year tax waiver of duties and value added tax on textile raw materials, fabrics and accessories that are not available locally.This step is expected to reduce the cost of production and also boost local manufacturing.The six-nation East African Community comprises Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The EAC will now shift to a four-band tariff structure for cotton, textiles and apparels to promote cotton yarn and fabric production. While imported raw materials not available in the region would attract zero duty, intermediate inputs would be taxed at ten per cent, fabrics at 25 per cent, and readymade garments at 40 per cent.
The EAC has also agreed to adopt a three-year strategy for a gradual phase out of used clothing and shoe imports. This will be done through increased tax on these products and categorisation of products per bale of imports.
The partner states have also decided to establish cotton lint banks to ensure availability of cotton lint for spinning mills and downstream value addition.
All partner states producing cotton lint will set a target of at least 30 per cent local value addition to domestic cotton lint. This threshold would be increased to 50 per cent within five years.
Dyeing industry in total confusion as due to the shortage of gas and electricity, compulsion of effluent treatment facilities and fund constraints have left the dyeing industry here in total disarray.The picture of new investment in the dyeing sector over the last few years is very frustrating while some units have been shut down for these reasons.
According to the industry sources 5 closed dyeing and textile factories with the production capacity of 100 tonnes per day invested an estimated amount of Tk 2 billion it further stated that boiler is the production unit in the dyeing industry which is run on gas. A dyeing factory needs uninterrupted gas supply for 10-12 hours for running the same. But the gas distribution authority in Chittagong neither supplies required gas to running units nor gives gas connections to new ones.
To invest in the dyeing industryno entrepreneurs have come forward as expected due to lack of uninterrupted gas supply and new gas connections, says Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).Frequent power outages, changes in the Bangladesh Bank regulations and excesses of the environment department for setting up effluent treatment plants (ETPs) in the factories have added to the woes, they added. It was also said that severe gas shortage has forced the unit to suspend production. The industry was set up at a cost of Tk 300 million with bank loan.
On the other hand, many more industries were given new gas connections in Narayanganj,. No small businesses like dyeing factories will be benefited as the cost of furnace oil is much higher in our country than that of other countriesas alternative fuel of gas and even though the government attaches importance on the import of LNG (liquefied natural gas)the production cost in the dyeing factories will go up much higher.
Simparel has launched a product lifecycle management software solution. Called PLM EVO, the cloud/web-based platform effectively redefines the user experience by enhancing design creativity and productivity, automating tasks and processes and providing easy to understand analytics that drive more-timely and better-informed business decisions across the product design, development and sourcing processes. It represents the latest evolution in Fashion PLM.
Simparel provides apparel manufacturing software solutions. It is a provider of next-generation information technology solutions for the fashion and consumer goods industries.
Available for deployment as either a standalone PLM (product lifecycle management) or as part of the fully integrated Simparel Enterprise solution, Simparel PLM EVO features a new design plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that empowers designers to launch new concepts and access materials, colors, designs and other PLM product information all right from within the popular design software. A new level of automation eliminates excessive data entry and streamlines processes and timelines. Real-time analytics built into the new system provides companies with greater process visibility and control than ever before.
The mobile-first design of the new system ensures ease of use and mobile access by internal teams, C-Suite executives, and global suppliers from their desktop, tablet and smart phone devices.
Between 2016 and 2024, the global luxury apparel market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 13.2 per cent. Big brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Versace are expanding to developing economies, which has not only improved their geographical reach but also won them a newer consumer base.
The global luxury apparel market is segmented into leather, cotton, denim, silk, and others. Cotton dominates the global market. The preference for cotton is due to its convenience in hot and humid weather in regions such as Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa. High cotton production in India and China has also made Asia Pacific a frontrunner in the global market.
Leather is preferred due to its durability and ability to adapt to myriad designs that characterize high fashion. The expensive nature of leather also makes it fit for luxury brands. Silk is also gaining significant momentum due to its smooth texture, softness, and the elegance it bestows on the overall design. The remarkable production of silk in India and China has also once again lent an impetus to the luxury apparel market of the Asia Pacific.
Presently Europe has a strong footing in the global market due to the presence of several luxury brands and houses that have been in the business for several decades. However, Asia Pacific is expected to have a strong demand for luxury apparel over the coming years.
