Textile Imports Research Articles

Labor Market Adjustment to Third Party Competition: Evidence from Mexico

China's exports reduce wages in importing countries, but few studies have looked at competition in third party markets. We examine labor market outcomes in Mexico's apparel and textile sectors associated with U.S. apparel and textile imports from China. Using data on U.S. imports in conjunction with quarterly Mexican labor force surveys, we show that U.S. imports from China are associated with a reduction of employment in Mexico's textile and apparel sectors. These effects are the most pronounced for the least educated. Wages were not impacted on net except for the poorest indicating stronger local labor market ties in the left tail of the wage distribution. Notably, reductions in labor demand due to reduced textile imports had spill-overs beyond these sectors. Finally, the effects of trade-induced demand shocks dissipate after about two quarters indicating low firm-level adjustment costs.

What if? Counterfactual (Hi)Stories of International Law

AbstractThis paper proposes to think counterfactually about international law: How could it have been otherwise? Asking that question has the benefit of, first, exposing contingencies in international law’s development that are otherwise glossed over in the rush towards making sense of what happened. Second, counterfactual thinking supports the understanding of what actually happened in a context-sensitive fashion. Third, it forms part of comparative moral assessments and exposes blind spots. Counterfactual thinking may thus contribute to the freedom from necessity, from grand theory, and from reality. The paper draws the contours of what writing counterfactual (hi)stories of international law is about, discusses its merits as well as drawbacks, offers guidance on how to do it, and then focuses on two probing examples: What if the International Trade Organization had been established around 1949? What if garment workers were seals and the European Commission prohibited the importation of certain textiles?

Colombia – Measures Relating to the Importation of Textiles, Apparel and Footwear Report of the Appellate Body 7 June 2016

Colombia – Measures Relating to the Importation of Textiles, Apparel and Footwear Report of the Appellate Body 7 June 2016

The impact of Chinese textile imperialism on Nigeria’s textile industry and trade: 1960–2015

SUMMARYThis briefing examines the effects of globalisation and the challenge posed by China to the Nigerian textile industry in the twenty-first century. The meteoric rise of imports of cheap Chinese textiles into the Nigerian market, which was formerly dominated by local fabrics, has shifted the balance in favour of the imports, which has consequently destroyed the economic base of the local textile industry.

The fabric of society: recognising the importance of textiles and their manufacture in the ancient past

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‘Cloths with Names’: Luxury Textile Imports in Eastern Africa, c. 1800–1885

In the nineteenth century, a vast area of eastern Africa stretching the length of the coast and into the reaches of the Congo River was connected by long-distance trade mostly channelled through the Omani commercial empire based in Zanzibar. As studies have recently shown, a critical factor driving trade in this zone was local demand for foreign cloth; from the 1830s the majority of it was industrially made coarse cotton sheeting from Europe and America, which largely displaced the handwoven Indian originals. Employing archival, object, image and field research, this article demonstrates that until 1885 luxury textiles were as important to economic and social life in central eastern Africa, textiles known to the Swahili as ‘cloths with names’. It identifies the thirty or so varieties which élites — and, increasingly, the general population — selected for status dress and gifts, instrumental in building the commercial and socio-political networks that linked the great region. Finally, it shows that the production and procurement of most varieties remained in the hands of Asian textile artisans and merchants; most prestigious and costly were striped cotton and silk textiles handcrafted in western India, and in the southern Arabian nation of Oman. European industrial attempts to imitate them were hampered by several factors, including their inability to recreate the physical features that defined luxury fabrics in this region — costly materials, rich colours, complex designs and handwoven structures.

BRICS and the situation of labour

6 | International Union Rights | 24/4 FOCUS | THE BRICS COUNTRIES AND TRADE UNION RIGHTS BRICS and the situation of labour BRICS is an acronym for a grouping of five major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group started in 2009 with four countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). South Africa joined the group in 2010, making it a full-blown transcontinental interstate co-operation. Together, these countries account for 41 percent of the world’s population, 14 percent of global trade, 46 percent of the global workforce and 14 percent of the global GDP (Bond, 2016). BRICS was formed in the wake of rebalancing within the global economy that saw the global South emerge as the centre of economic growth. Recognising their emerging economic power, emerging economies felt the need to forge a model of interstate co-operation that will be compatible with the needs of developing economies. With China having emerged as the second biggest economy in the world and two member countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council, BRICS is a grouping outside of the West that commands enormous political and economic power. But there are imbalances, contradictions and competing interests obtaining among the BRICS member states that threaten the interstate cooperation . Importantly, the weak state of compliance with trade union rights offer some states unfair competitive advantage over others, giving rise to huge imbalances in the distribution of costs and benefits accruing from the membership of BRICS. Co-operation, tensions and competition within BRICS BRICS was formed to promote co-operation among the key emerging economies which felt that the needs of developing countries were marginalised by the West-dominated multilateral finance institutions. At the heart of the formation of BRICS was the idea of promoting ‘contexts-specific developmental goals’; the need to ‘redress the unfairness of the global political and economic architecture and to act as a self-help group in an uncertain world’ (BRICS Think Tanks Council, 2017: 34). The group felt that the West was unable to bring about stability in the global economy following the recent economic crisis. With much positive economic activity registering in the emerging economies, the countries saw the potential to intervene as a group to influence the direction of the global economy. In the area of co-operation BRICS has established the New Development Bank (NDB) to provide resources for development. A credit support line – the Contingent Reserve Arrangement – to aid countries in times of contingencies has been set and steps are underway to establish a credit ratings agency intended to operate differently from the main rating agencies of the West, which have been regarded as hostile to the needs of developing countries. In setting up its institutions to drive its mission, BRICS has often partnered with the main developmental institutions of the West, thus moderating the view that the group is anti-West. But tensions have emerged between some of the BRICS members, including tensions triggered by border disputes between India and China. Efforts by China to step up relations with Pakistan have also riled India. Furthermore competition between the BRICS member states has emerged strongly. BRICS member states enjoy unrestricted entry into each other’s markets. Within this context, China and Brazil have been flooding South Africa with cheap manufacturing and agricultural products, resulting in massive job losses as factories close or scale down operations. Clothing and textile imports from China stopped short of wiping out the South African clothing and textile industry in the early 2000s (Vlok, 2006). In 2015 and 2016 the dumping of steel by China in the South African market resulted in the loss of about 20,200 jobs in the steel sector (Steyn, 2016). The Chinese steel products weakened South Africa’s leading steel producer – Arcelor-Mittal, which accounts for 70 percent of domestic steel production. The poultry sector in South Africa is another case of an industry that suffered from the country’s membership of BRICS. Joining BRICS induced South Africa to open up its poultry market to imports from Brazil. Cheap chicken imports from Brazil induced South Africa’s biggest chicken producers – Rainbow Chicken and Country Bird, to sell or close...

Colombia – Measures Relating to the Importation of Textiles, Apparel and Footwear (Colombia–Textiles), DS461

This dispute concerned the imposition by Colombia of a ‘compound tariff’ on the importation of certain textiles, apparel, and footwear classified under Chapters 61 through 64 of Colombia's Customs Tariff. The compound tariff was composed of an ad valorem levy, expressed as a percentage of the customs value of goods, and a specific levy, expressed in units of currency per unit of measurement. The ad valorem component of the compound tariff was 10% for all products regardless of their value; the specific component depended on price thresholds for certain textiles, apparel, and footwear, imposing a higher levy on products imported below the price threshold set out in the corresponding Chapter of Colombia's Customs Tariff.

Colombia – Measures Relating to the Importation of Textiles, Apparel and Footwear Report of the Appellate Body 7 June 2016

Colombia – Measures Relating to the Importation of Textiles, Apparel and Footwear Report of the Appellate Body 7 June 2016

Effects of trade cost on the textile and apparel market: evidence from Asian countries

Global textile and apparel industry has since the 1950s been subjected to various forms of trade policy measures. Well noted among these are tariffs and non-tariff barriers (NTB)/policy indicators. Understanding the dynamics in such relevant policy indicators and the implications they yield for trade is a vital step toward informing relevant policy formulation and agribusiness investment decisions. With the textile and apparel industry being the primary grounds on which development in most Asian countries is founded, we for the first time in literature assess effects of various trade cost indicators on global textile and apparel imports from 37 Asian countries using a ‘cost-incorporated’ gravity model for the period 1988–2004. Estimates from this study affirm theory-based associations between trade, distance, cultural linkage, tariffs, and non-tariffs barriers. We however discovered quite interesting associations regarding effects of tariff increments and existence of NTB. Although both are primarily imposed/instilled to restrict trade flow, effect of tariff increments was consistently negative across all models, but that for NTB was consistently positive, although significant only in the case of apparel imports. Plausible reasons behind the implications for tariffs and NTB are elaborated on in this article. A keen discovery from this study, however, is that imports of apparels are more responsive than textile imports to dynamics in various trade-related cost, geographic and economic indicators.

‘Made in China’. Contraband, Labour and the Gendered Effects of ‘Free-Trade’, China-Peru

In Peru, textiles have increasingly become contested as commodities and objects of consumption, especially following the free trade agreement between Peru and China, signed in 2009, which accommodates increased importation of Chinese textiles. This article discusses how local intermediaries, often women who have found a livelihood working with the importation and vending of textiles, are affected by increased border regulations and competition from over-seas, more formalised forms of importation. Reflecting on enactments of femininities and the social and spatial embeddedness of trade in the border areas, the article discusses the multifaceted and gendered implications of a de-localisation of commodity flows.

17세기 조선의 복식 사치와 문직물의 수입에 관한 연구

17세기 조선의 복식 사치와 문직물의 수입에 관한 연구

Metal–Insulator–Semiconductor Coaxial Microfibers Based on Self‐Organization of Organic Semiconductor:Polymer Blend for Weavable, Fibriform Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

With the increasing importance of electronic textiles as an ideal platform for wearable electronic devices, requirements for the development of functional electronic fibers with multilayered structures are increasing. In this paper, metal–polymer insulator–organic semiconductor (MIS) coaxial microfibers using the self‐organization of organic semiconductor:insulating polymer blends for weavable, fibriform organic field‐effect transistors (FETs) are demonstrated. A holistic process for MIS coaxial microfiber fabrication, including surface modification of gold microfiber thin‐film coating on the microfiber using a die‐coating system, and the self‐organization of organic semiconductor–insulator polymer blend is presented. Vertical phase‐separation of the organic semiconductor:insulating polymer blend film wrapping the metal microfibers provides a coaxial bilayer structure of gate dielectric (inside) and organic semiconductor (outside) with intimate interfacial contact. It is determined that the fibriform FETs based on MIS coaxial microfiber exhibit good charge carrier mobilities that approach the values of typical devices with planar substrate. It additionally exhibits electrical property uniformity over the entire fiber surface and improved bending durability. Fibriform organic FET embedded in a textile is demonstrated by weaving MIS coaxial microfibers with cotton and conducting threads, which verifies the feasibility of MIS coaxial microfiber for use in electronic textile applications.

Product’s Selection for the Moroccan Technical Textile Industry by Using Custom’s Imports Data and Analytic Models

<p>This paper proposes a model of product’s selection for Moroccan technical Textile industry. In a first step, using software, the study selects technical textiles positions, classes them by technologies segments, and extracts their import’s data from governmental data based, in term of value, volume, unit price and suppliers. In a second step overweight various segments and products using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate attractiveness and competitive strength and chooses which of them are the most suitable for investment by using a Mckinsey matrix. From the 481 products considered as technical textiles, the study chooses 21 (4.3%) products representing 44.14% from the total value of Moroccan technical textile imports.</p>

The import price index with trade barriers: theory and evidence

The standard economic import price index hinges on an assumption of free trade. Applying the index to situations with barriers to trade yields biased results compared to a true import price index. To circumvent this problem, it is common to use average prices, such as unit values, as an aggregator function. However, the use of average prices is not rooted in economic theory. In this paper, I generalise the economic import price index to allow for barriers to trade in the form of quantity constraints. To illustrate the theoretical framework, I use the case of imports of textiles to Norway from 1988 to 1997. I find that a standard economic import price index, such as the Laspeyres index, grossly overstates import costs and that this bias is significantly reduced by using unit values.

The Open Door: Early Modern Wajorese Statecraft and Diaspora

The Open Door:Early Modern Wajorese Statecraft and Diaspora Hendrik E. Niemeijer Kathryn Anderson Wellen DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014. 217 pp. with index, ISBN 978-0875807126 This book deals with the people of the small Bugis kingdom of Wajoq in South Sulawesi. As a result of the Makassar War (1666–9), during which the Wajorese sided with the Makassarese kingdom of Gowa against the neighbouring Bugis kingdom of Boné under its pro-VOC ruler Arung Palakka (1634–96), the Wajorese were punished by Palakka. Many fled Wajoq and settled elsewhere in the archipelago. Perhaps the most important part of this book is Chapter 4, which deals with the participation of the diaspora Wajorese in maritime commerce. The Wajorese were very active in creating their own trading networks outside Dutch control at the time when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was operating a sea-pass system. The ports used by the Wajorese included Pasir, Kutai, Pulau Laut on the east coast of Kalimantan; Kaili, Mandar, Soreang on the west coast of Sulawesi; and the pepper port of Banjarmasin, Makassar’s direct competitor. The Makassar Strait was a vital waterway connecting Sulu with Kalimantan and the Malay World. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the Wajorese gradually regained their strength, while their principal rival, Boné, declined. The rise of the Wajorese stimulated even more commercial activities within the larger Bugis trading networks. Like other Bugis and Makassarese groups, the Wajorese were active both inside and outside the VOC’s trading territory. They often avoided the Dutch sea-pass system, and thereby went around the VOC-imposed restrictions on the import of Indian textiles into the territory of VOC-contracted rulers. Wellen should give a clearer explanation here of what was ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’. Trading regulations, harbour tolls, and issuance of sea-passes were not something invented by the VOC. The Sultanate of Banten, for example, had done the same in the seventeenth century. Trade by foreign or local ships without sea-passes was considered illegal by the Bantenese authorities. Wajorese sea captains transporting cargo from Johore to Banjarmasin, however, were not breaching any Bantenese or VOC laws as both ports were independent of both Dutch and Bantenese jurisdiction. The export of cloves from Maluku, for instance, was illegal because it breached the contracts between the VOC and the Maluku sultans. Wellen is right to point out that the VOC’s de facto control over petty trade by country craft shipping was often weak. The Makassar Strait was much more difficult to patrol than, for instance, the Bangka Strait. Indeed, Wajorese textile sales in VOC-controlled South Sulawesi were so successful that the VOC frequently encountered difficulties selling their own selection of textiles at similar prices. The VOC acted as a wholesaler, but found [End Page 175] that their Indian-imported piece goods just piled up in Fort Rotterdam’s (Makassar) warehouses and were unsellable at the prices it fixed. The Wajorese (amongst others) avoided these expensive warehouses, and were often not at all interested in obtaining sea-passes in Makassar. Instead, they purchased their own selection of textiles elsewhere—frequently from the British—for much cheaper prices, and sold them in places, like Palu, where VOC control was weak or even absent. One of the strong points of the Wajoq trading network was their scrupulousness in upholding their own maritime laws. According to Wellen, this created an element of unity among the Wajorese diaspora trading communities. This law code was published by B. F. Matthes in Over de Wadjorezen met hun Handels-en Scheepswetboek (Makassar: P. van Hartrop, 1869). Wellen categorizes this law code as ‘extremely comprehensive’ and ‘very effective’, but in fact it is impossible to say just how effective these laws actually were because we lack the necessary sources regarding their implementation. It is a well-known fact in legal history that law codes may bear little relationship to day-to-day practices. It may be best to see the Wajorese law codes as an example of how the Bugis and Makassarese intended or attempted to regulate their business affairs in the larger Bugis and Makassarese maritime commercial world. Wellen rightly mentions the Makassar...

Screening of climatic impacts on a country’s international supply chains: Japan as a case study

Industrial activities are linked through international supply chains, and the impacts that one country experiences can easily influence other countries. Climate change has made it essential for countries to review their supply chains and to prioritize introducing concrete adaptation actions. Therefore, this study aims to demonstrate a method of screening imported products that are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change by assessing all imported products in a consistent manner throughout the global supply chain to support a country’s adaptation strategy planning. The study focuses on the potential impacts on land use and human health of climate change effects such as floods and heat waves. Japan was selected for a detailed analysis of its imports. A life-cycle assessment technique was applied to evaluate imported products through their supply chains. In Japan’s case, land use results show that agricultural products imported from the United States of America (US) are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. In relation to imported meat products, feed production processes are most vulnerable. The human health results show in addition to agricultural imports, electronics and textile imports are also vulnerable. The study recommends that the relevant stakeholders impacted by these products scrutinize their supply chains. Especially, Japan is recommended to collaborate with the US, China, and Southeast Asian countries for increasing resilience to climate change. The results include uncertainties due to limitations of data availability and methodology; however, this method is also applicable to assessing the global trade activities of any country and to supporting global adaptation strategies.

Sectorial Deindustrialisation of Zimbabwe's Textiles and Clothing Sectors:Are Chinese Imports to Blame?

In most emerging economies the establishment of the textiles and clothing sectors is the first bold step towards industrialisation. The sectors employs the highest number of women, accommodates the highest number of low skilled labour. Zimbabwe in recent years have suffered significant de-industrialisation of its textile and clothing sectors. Because of their labour intensive nature the de-industrialisation of the textiles and clothing sectors in Zimbabwe was a major setback to woman and low skilled labourers There are widely held sentiments that clothing and textile imports from China are the key driver of de-industriualisation of Zimbabwe’s textiles and clothing sectors. This paper analyses the factors behind the deindustrialization of Zimbabwe’s clothing and textile sectors. The role of Chinese imports, macroeconomic instability, poor investment climate and other structural rigidities were considered.

Asian Textiles in the Carreira da Índia: Portuguese Trade, Consumption and Taste, 1500–1700

This article focuses on the textile trade between Asia and Portugal in the early modern period. It highlights the pivotal role that Portugal played in the distribution of Asian manufactures across Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before England and Holland set up large trading companies. It further examines the nature of Asian textile imports in Portugal, assessing their impact on consumption patterns, local manufacturing and shifts in taste.

International competition in the first wave of globalization: new evidence on the margins of trade

We pose a seemingly ageless question in economic history. To what extent did new entrants in the late nineteenth‐century cotton‐textile industry threaten the customary markets of the European core? Exploiting a newly constructed dataset on textile imports to Spain, we find that as trade costs fell, new rivals began to sell a greater variety of products. Along this dimension, competition can be said to have increased. In response, producers in Europe adjusted the type and number of goods exported. By 1914, specialization mapped onto endowments of skilled labour, capital, and access to raw materials. While firms in new industrializing countries exported low‐end varieties, incumbents in the core shipped high‐end goods, unit values increasing with levels of development.