Many foreign companies operating in China have come under fire for listing Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries. As per a statement on the regulator’s WeChat account, The Shanghai office of the Cyberspace Administration of China reprimanded Spanish fast fashion retailer Zara and American medical device maker Medtronic for mentioning Taiwan as an independent country.

Both companies were ordered to apologies by Friday night, carry out “self-inspection” of their websites and apps and turn in rectification reports. “Shanghai Cyberspace Administration will further assess the situation depending on the rectification result,” the statement added. Both companies apologised and updated their websites. Medtronic posted a statement on the microblog platform Weibo, “Medtronic fully understands China’s stance on its territorial issues and we sincerely apologise for causing misunderstanding among the Chinese public.”

American hospitality chain Marriott came under fire for mentioning Tibet, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan as separate countries in a customer questionnaire earlier this month and liking a Twitter post supporting Tibetan independence.

Despite Marriott’s apology reassuring the Chinese that the company doesn’t “support anyone who subverts the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China,” the Shanghai government demanded that Marriott close down its Chinese website and app for a week.

The Shanghai cyberspace administration’s statement also welcomed netizens to report such issues to safeguard a healthy online environment. Similar mistakes were noticed on the websites of companies, including Delta Air Lines and H&M. A Delta spokesperson informed that the company had updated its site. The series of public relations disasters has triggered an uproar on Chinese social media, with netizens calling for a boycott of foreign brands. “You first earned Chinese people’s money, and then hurt our feelings. I would like to ask you to leave China,” wrote one angry net user on Weibo.

Only two years since its launch, the ground-breaking Uster Tester 6 is making a significant impact in Bangladesh. Ambitious and quality-conscious spinners are keen to participate in the rapid growth in export sales by the country’s textile producers. Uster Tester 6 is more than the ultimate evenness tester, it is also the entry to wider potential benefits for mills, integrating data from other Uster quality measurement sources to create a real Total Testing Centre.

Bangladeshi mills have been seeing the advantages and correspondingly several Uster Tester 6 units are already in operation in the country and in the rest of South East Asia, following its global launch at the Milan ITMA in 2015.

The upcoming DTG exhibition may stimulate even greater interest among visitors to the Uster booth. At the 15th Dhaka International Textile and Garment Machinery Exhibition, to be held in city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre from February 8-11, Uster experts will provide visitors with first-hand information on the Uster Tester 6.

The sheer speed of the Uster Tester 6 – without compromise on quality – is hailed by all the spinners. The test speed of 800 m/min also provides highly reliable and extremely accurate results, due to the new Capacitive and Optical Sensors.

Abdul Latif, Deputy General Manager of Divine Spinning Mills says hairiness testing at high-speeds of 800 m/min, also now including Hairiness Length Classification, requires relatively much less time for testing.” Companies also report increased efficiency in quality management, with feature such as the graphical presentation of ‘timeline’ reports – analysing the product with a long-term perspective and providing quality data over a pre-defined time. Khorshed Ali, Senior Manager Quality Control at Pahartali Textile & Hosiery Mills noted, “We are able to analyse the product at a single glance.”

Morocco’s Ministry of Industry, Investment, Trade and Digital Economy has decided to end the exemption on some Turkish textile products despite the 2006 Free Trade Agreement (FTA), between the Turkey and Morocco. Effective January 9, Morocco’s decision aims to protect the domestic textile industry, facing the rise of Turkish products on the national market in recent years.

Several Turkish brands, including LC Waikiki, Defacto and Koton have decided to expand the national market by opening stores in major cities of the kingdom of Morocco including Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Tangier, Fez and Agadir. This decision is post a study conducted by the Moroccan Association of Textile and Clothing Industries (AMITH) whose aim was to show up some Turkish operators who strategically sold at a loss to flood the national market with their products. In fact, imports of Turkish textile products registered a significant increase of 175 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

The Ministry's decision mainly concerns Article 17 of the FTA on transitional adjustment measures, over a period of one year, to ensure a balance in favour of domestic products. Rakiya Eddarhem, Secretary of State for the Minister of Industry, Investment, Trade and Digital Economy, in charge of foreign trade, said imports of certain Turkish textile products will be increased to 90 per cent under common law. These include man-made filaments, man-made staple fibres, carpets and other textile floor coverings, special fabrics, tufted textile surfaces, lace, tapestries, trimmings, embroidery, knitted fabrics clothing and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted, articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted or made up, made-up articles, second-hand clothes and rags. Eddarhem also disclosed that the national textile sector is the third largest contributor to the Kingdom's gross domestic product (GDP) with a 7 per cent share.

In addition, the FTA makes it clear that tariffs under these measures cannot exceed 25 per cent ad valorem and must retain an element of preference for products originating in the other Party. The total value of imports of products subject to these measures may not exceed 15 per cent of the total value of industrial products imported from the other Party during the last year for which statistics are available. The flooding of the national textile market by Turkish products has contributed to a loss of 20,000 jobs per year over the last five years.

The United States’ cotton sector is keeping a close watch on China to see if its imports are on the rise. Addressing a gathering in Lubbock’s Bayer Museum of Agriculture, John Robinson, Professor and extension economist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, noted, sometime in next few years, hopes are high that China’s overall import levels may rise and may even be back to 16 million bales. Low micronaire has been an issue this season following lack of maturity due to cold and cloudy weather in August. Commenting on this, Steve Verett, Producer and Executive Vice President of PCG stated, “Definitely below average micronaire for our area and not what we strive to produce.”

As for current market situation, there is demand for cotton. With economy recovering slowly, consumer will start spending and so nonessential commodity buying will start to rise. Observing the recent export sales figures, Robinson noted if exports follow the current trend, cotton exports from the US may be above the USDA’s estimate of 14.8 million bales (489 lbs. each). He expects USDA cold raise their estimate by about half a million bales.

There is still hope for enhanced imports by China in the next few years. According to John Robinson, demand will be a positive influence and the need for newer stock as China’s reserves are around 6 years old. When Chinese import improves, it will be a game changer, he added.