As President-elect Donald Trump is coming back and is likely take charge by 20th January 2025, his strategy and decisions on all the aspects including economic and trade related will be of interest to entire world. As far as textile/apparel industry is concern, US plays a significant role in the global textile/apparel industry as being a world’s largest apparel market, USA is the largest importer with a share of approx. 14% of the global trade. There may be many changes and amendments in the various strategies and processes by president Trump ones he resumes the charge, only time will cleat it, this article though not focusing on all the issues, but rather emphasized on the role of US in the global textile/apparel industries and what we as an industry professionals may see President Trump doing for our industry.
The current situation of the US textiles/apparel industry
The US textile industry is already very well established with an employees strength of around 500000 workers nationwide and produces almost $64.8 billion in output annually, and is the second largest individual country exporter of textile-related products in the world. The value of U.S. man-made fiber, textile and apparel shipments totaled an estimated $64.8 billion in 2023 and exports of fibers, textiles and apparel were $29.7 billion.
While the domestic textile industry is a key contributor to the US economy, it is facing crisis of historic pro-portions as the result of rapidly deteriorating market conditions associated with unchecked foreign predatory trade practices and diminished customs enforcement activities. On the economic front last year, it saw historic inflationary pressures, a severe global slowdown, weak consumer demand, a glut of retail inventory that translated into poor demand for future orders of textiles, and a contraction in manufacturing.
Return of President Trump
President-elect Donald Trump is all set to enter the Oval Office during January 2025, all eyes on him as to know his next steps. In regard to the textile/apparel industry, the domestic and global industry may see many reforms. At present, Chinse imports continues to dominate the retail chains in the US despite of imposing higher tariffs, with President Trump promising heavy tariffs on major imports from China (at the rate of 60% to 100%), it is bound to have significant impact on US retail to fill their inventory.
The second Trump presidency may work on reforming “The de minimis” provision (wherein China has been the primary beneficiary) which has many loopholes, Strengthening Customs Enforcement for Trade Violations, Strengthening Customs Enforcement for Trade Violations, Increasing Section 301 Penalties on Chinese Imports & Countries that Don’t Play by the Rules, Passing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), Preserving the Yarn Forward Rule of Origin, Expanding “Buy American” Policies, Passing Emergency Relief Funding & Tax Incentives for Domestic Manufacturing and few more.
If we look into the impact on India-US trade, as per the industry source, the return of Donald Trump as the next US President, will bolster India’s textile and apparel trade, in 2023, the US accounted for approximately 27% of India’s total textile and apparel exports, in the current financial year, India’s textile and apparel exports to the US during April to August is increased by about 6% to 7% compared to the same period last year, this is outpaced the growth rates of other key competitors such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh (it is declined to -2.2%, perhaps due to the current geo-political unrest in the country). Indian T&A industry is perhaps expecting President Trump to revise the current tariff of up to 32% on certain apparel categories. As far as China-US trade is concerned, President Trump during his first tenure levied tariffs on US$380 billion-worth China made goods, following the aggressive taxation measures, this trade war is still hot, and at the moment it is in trend of shifting production, sourcing, procurement from China to other countries, it will be interesting to see what future brings.
Trade Shows & Events
The US is also very important country for organizing trade shows and events, apart from many leading organizers, Messe Frankfurt is organizing very successful shows in the US – Texworld New York City and Apparelsourcing New York City, both scheduled to be during 21-23 January 2025 at Javits Center in New York. This leading textile event connects global textile manufacturers, fabric sourcing companies, and sustainable fabric suppliers with buyers from across the U.S. market.
Apparelsourcing New York City 2025
The US is the second largest exporter of textile-related products in the world, US textile industry is consistently developing new materials, technologies, and manufacturing methods. The US domestic industry and global T&A industry will be eagerly seeing how things shapes up in the US and world over from 2025 onwards.
