Textile Imports Research Articles

The Changing Contexts of Chinese-Nigerian Textile Production and Trade, 1900‒2015

Since the mid-1990s, China has become the leading exporter worldwide of manufactured textiles and clothing. For Nigeria, one of China’s major trading partners in Africa, increased imports of Chinese textiles are related to the decline of the Nigerian textile manufacturing industry. It also reflects the opening up of China to foreign investment and the subsequent boom in manufactured textile exports and to changes in World Trade Organization textile agreements. This paper examines these changes in textile manufacture and trade, focusing first on twentieth-century Chinese and Nigerian textile manufacturing histories and their subsequent divergence, beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the early twenty-first century. The increase in Chinese-Nigerian textile trade became physically evident in Nigeria in the late 1990s, with Chinese textile companies setting up offices in Lagos and Kano, and Nigerian traders and businessmen setting up offices in Guangzhou, China. The question of how increased shipments of Chinese manufactured textiles have been organized by Chinese company representatives, brokers, and traders, as well as by Nigerian traders and businessmen to meet Nigerian consumer demand is then addressed. Finally, this growth in textile trade is considered in the context of Chinese-Nigerian plans for the building of a Free Trade Zone in Lagos, which would include the construction of a new textile mill. The paper concludes by considering whether this collaboration may lead to a revival of the Nigerian textile industry.

Asia. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The furies of nature and the fortunes of migrants By Sunil S. Amrith Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Pp. 353. Photographs, Maps, Glossary, Abbreviations, Archives and Special Collections, Index.

Asia. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The furies of nature and the fortunes of migrants By Sunil S. Amrith Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Pp. 353. Photographs, Maps, Glossary, Abbreviations, Archives and Special Collections, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 2

실버세대의 심리적 안정감에 따른 건강 기능성 섬유 인지 및 선호에 관한 연구

The purposes of this study were to investigate difference on recognition, preference, satisfaction and possession of functional textile clothing in psychological comfort groups according to gender and age of the elderly and suggest optimal physical, mental and healthy functional textiles for the elderly. The data was collected from 262 respondents in their age of over 55, who lived in Busan. SPSS 21.0 was used and t-test, cross tabulation analysis, frequency analysis, and descriptive analysis were performed for analysis. The results are as follows. First, high groups of psychological comfort for both gender and age of the elderly showed higher recognition and preference of functional textiles, especially in the high groups of the new silver generation and women. Second, the high groups of psychological comfort for both gender and age of the elderly showed higher satisfaction of functional textiles. However, it was lower than preference of functional textiles. Last, the possession of major clothing function over all the elderly was comfort, fitting motion adaptability, and health safety function in order. Low groups of psychological comfort possessed fitting motion adaptability textile clothing more than the high groups, and the high groups of psychological comfort possessed comfort and health safety textile clothing more than low groups. In conclusion, this research showed the importance of functional textiles for the elderly in terms of psychological comfort as well as the need for healthy comfort textiles for the advanced activities of daily life.

Main Factors Influencing the German Buyers’ Satisfaction in Sourcing Ready-Made Garments from Egypt

Germany is the largest importer of clothing in Europe. 67% of all imports derived from countries outside Europe. Now Egypt is still not among the largest Suppliers to Germany, in spite of the importance of textiles and Apparel industry to the prosperity of Egyptian economy. The contribution of this study is presented in determining the most important selection criteria affecting the German buyers ‘decision in sourcing Ready Made Garments from overseas countries such as Egypt. These considerable selection criteria have been used to assess the satisfaction level of German Ready Made Garments’ buyers, who have previous experience in sourcing from Egypt. It is found that the most important main selection’ criteria, that influence the German Ready Made Garment’ buyers decision, included: the People in the first rank with average importance rate of 27.8 %, Production in the second rank with a percent of 25.9%, then come the delivery performance in the third rank with a percent of 25 % and lastly the product in the fourth rank with 21.2%. Under these main selection criteria, further twenty sub- criteria have been also developed. The satisfaction survey results showed that 38% from the sample surveyed (the German Buyers) expressed their satisfaction of the outcome in dealing with Egyptian Garments suppliers, 30% from the buyers were natural , and 32% were not satisfied with the product and services offered to them. Further recommendations regarding improving the performance of Egyptian readymade garments factories have been also collected and presented. This study could be further utilized as a guiding tool to enhance the competitiveness level of Egyptian garment production, and to increase its tendency to become potential suppliers for foreign German retailers, thus increasing the volume of Egyptian Ready Made Garment export to Germany.

Trade Liberalization and its Impact on the Indian Textile Industry's Export Performance Vis-a-Vis other Competing Countries

This paper outlines the effect of phasing out of quotas on textiles trade in 2005 on textile exports from India and its competing countries. Phasing out of quotas led to increased trade in textiles. The paper outlines the trends in trade in the textile industry, share of India and other competing countries in textile and clothing imports of USA and EU - the two major textile and clothing importers of the world and issues facing the Indian textile sector. This paper concludes with some policy measures to make the Indian textiles industry globally competitive for enhancing the exports of textiles and clothing from our country.

Provenance of archaeological wool textiles: new case studies

In the last two decades, measurements of strontium (Sr) isotopes in archaeological bone tissues/skeletons have shown to be an effective technique for the characterisation of human and animal mobility in prehistory. More recently, this tracing system is also being applied to the investigation of archaeological textile’s provenance. The importance of ancient textiles has been often underestimated, however research of archaeological textiles is currently experiencing an extremely increasing interest as the development of new methodologies, conducting experimental studies and lancing of new projects are providing an unreached amount of new information, knowledge and impressive data sets which together build the basis of novel thinking and interpretations. This manuscript aims at summarising two of the most recently developed methods that focus on the extraction of Sr from ancient non-dyed and organic-dyed wool threads from archaeological textiles in an attempt to identify if the raw materials are local or non-local to the sites. In particular, this study presents two case studies which rely on the use of these chemical protocols. The first example deals with a wool/fur sample from a modern Greenlandic Musk ox. The purpose of this study is to characterise wool from an exotic animal on the one side, and to try to establish a link between this wool and a geologically-seen ancient and very special terrain (Archaean basement rocks from the Kangerlussuaq area of Western Greenland) on which this musk ox was grazing. Our interest was focused on whether the bioavailable Sr fraction from this terrain impacted on the composition of the wool from the animal. The second case study deals with three thread samples from four ancient wool textile pieces recovered from one and the same pre-Roman Iron Age peat bog site at Krogens Mølle (Denmark). Some of these textiles have proven to be dyed with organic dyestuffs. This study therefore aimed at applying a novel pre-cleaning methodology developed for dyed (by organic dyestuffs) wool threads from ancient textiles. The outcome of these two particular studies revealed both the potential of these novel methodologies for retrieving the original Sr isotope signature of the raw material wool, and their limitations.

The United States’ Economic Disengagement Policy and Korea’s Industrial Transformation: Implications of the Textile Disputes (1969–1971) for the Quasi Alliance in East Asia

The textile disputes (1969–1971), characterized by the simultaneous negotiations and conclusion of bilateral voluntary export restraints (VERs), marked the first major trade conflict between the United States and its East Asian Allies during the Cold War. The U.S. initiated the negotiations aimed at restricting the import of textiles produced by major East Asian newly industrialized economies (NIE), including Korea and Japan. I argue that the textile disputes played a crucial role in changing the development strategy of Korea in two ways: on the one hand, it established a direct trade barrier that drastically reduced the viability of light industry, creating an urgent need for the Korean government to turn to look for another way to continue the economic development. On the other hand, it was perceived by both Korea and Japan as symbolizing the U.S.’s economic disengagement policy in East Asia, leading to closer economic cooperation between the two quasi allies, especially in the heavy and chemical industry (HCI) sector. As a consequence, the textile disputes provided Korea with both the incentive and resources to pursue industrial transformation promoting the HCI.

ASR FORUM: ENGAGING WITH AFRICAN INFORMAL ECONOMIES

Abstract:This article examines the impact of Chinese textile imports on the organization and politics of women’s textile trading networks in Benin. The incursion of cheap Chinese textiles into markets formerly dominated by imported European fabrics has shifted the balance of power between networks of traders in Benin’s textile market, reconfiguring relations between textile traders, state officials, and international companies. Focusing on political and economic dimensions of trading networks, the article reveals how global linkages transform local economic networks and how local actors structure networks for global economic partners. Far from bypassing state actors, this process is shown to incorporate state officials from above and from below, splintering established trading networks and weaving new ones from emerging configurations of traders, state officials, and global textile exporters.

The organisation of British textile exports to the River Plate and Chile: Merchant houses in operation, c. 1810–59

During c. 1810–59 over 260 British merchant houses operated in the River Plate or Chile, and many more in the rest of Latin America. These were times when Anglo-Latin American economic relations remained largely commercial, since the region was an important commercial partner of Britain. British investment was unimportant during this period in the region. The main economic activity of these mercantile houses was the import of textiles in exchange for bullion, specie, bills of exchange and local produce. Yet the textile trade has received little attention, despite the importance of the region as a market for British manufacturers. This paper describes in detail the relations between textile manufacturers and/or merchants in Britain and merchants on the spot, in particular for the marketing oftextiles, the backbone of the business of British merchants operating in Latin America. This paper focuses on the particular case of the Southern Cone during c. 1810–59.

NATIONAL SOCKS AND THE “NYLON WOMAN”: MATERIALITY, GENDER, AND NATIONALISM IN TEXTILE MARKETING IN SEMICOLONIAL EGYPT, 1930–56

AbstractThe specific ways that cloth—“foreign silks,” “durable Egyptian cottons,” and “artificial silks”—emerged as a potent and visible symbol through which to contest the relations of colonialism and establish national community in Egypt varied with the changing realities of Egypt's political economy. The country's early importation of textiles despite its cultivation of raw cotton, the growth of its state-protected local mechanized industry working long- and medium-staple cotton for a largely lower-class market, and that industry's diversification into artificial silk technologies all helped structure a shift from “foreign silks” to “the nylon woman” as tropes in popular and political discourse defining the limits of the national community and the behaviors suitable for it. Although artificial fibers considerably lowered the cost of hosiery and other goods, thereby expanding consumption, the use of synthetics like nylon rather than cotton subverted the goal of national economic unity between agriculture and industry.

AGOA Rules: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Special Fabric Provisions

Lesotho and other least developed African countries responded impressively to the preferences they were granted under the African Growth and Opportunities Act with a rapid increase in their clothing exports to the US. But this performance has not been accompanied by some of the more dynamic growth benefits that might have been hoped for. In this study we develop the theory and present empirical evidence to demonstrate that these outcomes are the predictable consequences of the manner in which the specific preferences might be expected to work. The MFA (Multi-Fiber Arrangement) quotas on US imports of textiles created a favorable environment for low value-added, fabric intensive clothing production in countries with unused quotas by inducing constrained countries to move into higher quality products. By allowing the least developed African countries to use third country fabrics in their clothing exports to the US, AGOA provided additional implicit effective subsidies to clothing that were multiples of the US tariffs on clothing imports. Taken together, these policies help account for the program’s success and demonstrate the importance of other rules of origin in preventing poor countries from taking advantage of other preference programs.But the disappointments can also be attributed to the preferences because they discouraged additional value-addition in assembly and stimulated the use of expensive fabrics that were unlikely to be produced locally. When the MFA was removed, constrained countries such as China moved strongly into precisely the markets in which AGOA countries had specialized. Although AGOA helped the least developed countries withstand this shock, they were nonetheless adversely affected. Preference erosion due to MFN reductions in US clothing tariffs could similarly have particularly severe adverse effects on these countries.

Challenges Facing Apparel Traders in Nairobi, Kenya, and Strategies for Flourishing in a Liberalized Market

The lack of enabling policies that would have ensured fair trade amongst various stakeholders of contrasting interests in Kenya became obvious when market liberalization was introduced in the 1990s. It created increased importation of cheap textiles and apparel products to the detriment of the local industry. Market liberalization became a common phenomena in developing countries in the 1990s, prompting the need for their documented assessment, hence this study. Data were collected from a random sample of 90 apparel traders drawn from three market centers in Nairobi according to the types of apparel they sold (new imported, second-hand, locally produced, and custom-tailored apparel). Lack of customers and stiff competition were the major challenges facing over 55% of the apparel traders. Most traders provided high quality merchandise as the main strategy to increase purchase of apparel. Chi-square analysis showed that the trader's age, employment position/designation, and source of fabric/clothing were the socioeconomic characteristics that significantly influenced the type of apparel sold. Therefore, the study recommends that other apparel traders adopt these factors, to increase their competitive edge and enhance growth of the local industry.

EU Trade Defence Actions against China and Their Impacts: The Cases of Textiles and Footwear

This paper seeks to deepen understanding of EU trade defence measures and their impacts by looking at two particular cases of their use against low-cost imports of Chinese textiles and footwear. The paper highlights, on the one hand, the difficulty experienced by the EU Member States in reaching agreement in both of these cases due to the very different national economic interests involved and, on the other, the impacts of these measures on the market. Both the textiles restrictions and the footwear antidumping actions were followed by reductions in the growth rates of China’s exports to the EU. However, they were also followed by an increase in the exports of other low-cost developing country exporters. The key winners from these actions in trade terms seem to be other developing countries rather than EU domestic industry.

Productivity Trend in Korea from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Century: A Comment on Jun, Lewis, and Kang

In a recent article published in this Journal, Jun Seong Ho, James Lewis, and Kang Han-Rog described the seve teenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth c nturies in the Korean economic history as periods of expansion, stability, and decline, respectively. Without clarifying whether it is the aggregate or per capita output that they claim to have expanded, stabilized, and then declined, the authors further argued that the trend is explicable in terms of productivity, which was in turn attributed primarily to policy measures affecting irrigation, security of property rights, and famine relief.1 Productivity remains a term imprecisely defined in the article. In the article, Jun, Lewis, and Kang spend no time discussing evidence on factor and asset prices. Such data is readily available. In fact, the authors have published such series themselves.2 The evidence on factor and asset prices indicate that the marginal productivity of land and labor declined consistently, rather than expanded, stabilized, and then declined in the precolonial centuries. Jun, Lewis, and Kang inferred productivity trends from the movement in commodity prices. Having claimed that the relative price of cotton cloth declined from the mid eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, they interpreted the alleged decline as an indication of falling productivity in rice farming. Of the eleven observations on the relative price in the two centuries in Figure 1 (on p. 254), the last three appear to have been made after 1876, the year when cotton textile imports from Britain began to depress cotton textile prices in Korea. The remaining eight?five for the eighteenth century and three for the nineteenth century?data points hardly justify the claim of rice having risen vis-a-vis cotton cloth after 1800. Moreover, even if one chooses to believe so, the perception could equally be interpreted as showing faster productivity growth in cotton textile production. The other evidence presented to support the claim of falling productivity is the rise in the rice price in terms of copper coin in the second half of the nineteenth century (figure on p. 255). However, in all likelihood, the inflation from 1876 onward was a consequence of the opening of port in 1876. In the following decades, agricultural exports expanded rapidly, causing not only the rice price, but also prices of dry field products to surge. The figure also shows that the rice price in terms of silver did not start to rise until 1876, which suggests that the rice price inflation in the third quarter

Development Choices for Philippine Textiles and Garments in the Post-MFA Era

The Philippine garments and textile industries were in crisis even before the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement in 2004. The crisis has deepened since. Ironically, the textile industry, a vibrant import-substituting industry, was a victim of the export-orientated garments industry. Located in Export Processing Zones and enclave industrial parks, the garments exporters have been dumping in the domestic market part of their duty-free textile imports. On the other hand, weak backward linkages have made the garments industry, which has been relying on cheap labour, uncompetitive in a global market dominated by the “full-package” producers, such as China and India. To be sustainable, the garments industry must focus on the niche and value-adding markets and on production-marketing systems based on skilled labour and respect for labour rights. Such a high-road approach, however, would require a no-nonsense government bent on pursuing a forward-looking development blueprint for these industries.

NAFTA and the Realignment of Textile and Apparel Trade: Trade Creation or Trade Diversion?

A modified version of the partial-equilibrium gravity model, originally proposed by Fukao et al. (2003), is employed to investigate the changing pattern of US textile trade. We use US Bilateral Manufacturing Imports and Exports data for 1989–2001 to assess the impact of labor wages, tariffs, and exchange rates on the composition of US textile imports before and after the creation of NAFTA. The analysis is performed at the SIC two-digit industry level and the more disaggregated four-digit sector level. We find little evidence of trade diversion in textiles frequently attributed to NAFTA, while trade creation is clearly present. Furthermore, lower wages in some textile-exporting countries (e.g. countries in Asia) do not appear to significantly increase these countries' shares of US textile imports at the expense of other trading partners. However, variations in currency exchange rates and tariffs have substantial effects on the composition of US imports.

Goods for sale: products and advertising in the Massachusetts industrial age

During the nineteenth century, Massachusetts was transformed from a fishing and farming economy into a highly urbanized industrial state. This book presents an appealing portrait of the diverse manufacturing enterprises that flourished from 1865 through the 1920s and the colorful trade cards they used to market their goods. More than thirty years after the Revolutionary War, the United States remained dependent on Europe for most manufactured goods. The War of 1812 persuaded a number of Boston merchants to invest in industries at home. Using waterpower, cotton from the South, and locally built machinery, they established textile mills at Waltham and later at Lowell and Lawrence. Following the decline of whaling, Fall River and New Bedford also became textile towns. With the help of protective tariffs, Massachusetts mills could compete against textile imports. Mass-production methods of manufacture were soon applied to shoes, organs and pianos, parlor stoves and kitchen ranges, and sewing machines, among many other products. As steam power replaced water power, factories were built close to railroad tracks and near town centers. Lynn, Brockton, and Haverhill developed as shoe-towns. Boston grew rapidly as the financial and cultural hub and became a world-class center for the raw wool, cotton, and leather markets, as well as the port of export for manufactured goods. Springfield and Worcester built the machinery for the factories and became centers for precision tool making. With fierce competition, new methods were needed to sell the goods. Massachusetts-made products were extensively displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, as well as at shows in Europe. Attractive trade cards were widely distributed to introduce these goods to customers across the United States and abroad. During the Gilded Age of Massachusetts industry, everything most people needed was locally made and sold in locally owned stores. Patent medicines, bicycles, motorcycles, and even automobiles were added to the list of products made in Massachusetts. Over time, the old red-brick industry has been replaced by a service economy based on higher education, financial services, biomedical research, and healthcare. Goods for Sale pays tribute to the state's manufacturing enterprises during their period of greatest prominence.

South African quotas on textile imports from China: A policy error?

In August 2006 the South African government announced quotas on the imports of clothing and textile products from China. Three questions arise. What are these expected benefits? What will be the most likely impact of the import quotas on the South African economy? And what are the policy implications? In this paper we answer these questions by using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. We find that, contrary to the motivations apparently underlying the quota implementation, the macro-economic, sector and household effects are negative and result in greater inequality between poorer and richer households. We refer to modeling results elsewhere in the literature which report results consistent to ours. The policy implications are that the imposition of these quotas could come to be seen as a policy mistake, and that South Africa may benefit more from considering a free trade agreement with China.

FIBER TECHNOLOGY AND WEAVING IN FORMATIVE-PERIOD GULF COAST CULTURES

AbstractWhile research has revealed the important role that textiles have played in Mesoamerica from the Classic period through contemporary cultures, few studies have explored the importance of textiles in earlier Mesoamerican cultures. Scant preservation thwarts research on Formative-period cultures such as the Gulf Coast Olmec, for which only a few fragments of cordage and woven mats have yet been recovered. However, considerable additional evidence of textiles is available through other material culture, such as the rich pictorial record of fibers and cloth shown in Olmec sculpture. Further evidence exists in textile-related ceramic artifacts recovered from Gulf Coast sites, and still more evidence can be found through the reevaluation of greenstone artifacts recovered from Gulf Coast sites and “heirloom caches” of Formative-period objects. Careful analysis of the form and iconography of certain types of provenienced greenstone artifacts reveals that these may have served as elite textile-making tools; replication studies confirms their functionality as implements for spinning, weaving, and making cordage. All together, this study suggests that the Gulf Coast Olmec already held not only textiles but textile making in high esteem during the Formative period, foreshadowing the great significance of textiles in later Mesoamerican cultures.

Distortions of Sino‐US and Sino‐EU Safeguard Agreements: Effects on World Textile Markets

AbstractThe effects of Sino‐US and Sino‐EU safeguard agreements on US, Chinese and world cotton and textile sectors are investigated using a partial equilibrium model. The effects are compared to a free trade scenario under the provisions of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing. The two safeguard agreements capping Chinese textile exports would decrease China's textile and apparel exports, production, and domestic consumption by an average 1.57, 0.63 and 0.32 percent, respectively. The safeguard agreements cause an increase in the US cotton textile price index and a slight decrease in US net textile imports and textile consumption. The agreements cause a decrease in the world cotton price and the quantity of cotton traded, but these trends reverse at safeguard expiration. The results generally support the view that the safeguard agreements forestall the effects of free trade in textiles and apparel rather than creating long lasting shifts in the textile trade.