USA’s apparel imports from the world declined by 22.28 percent to US $45.74 billion in the first seven months of the current year as against $58.86 billion in the comparable period of the previous year.
When measured by the quantity and measured in square meter equivalent (SME), between January and July 2023, the USA’s import from the world slowed down by 27.99 percent year on year to 14.03 billion SME.
“Imports from China, its biggest source fell 28.75 percent to $9.12 billion in the period under review, down 28.57 percent from a year,” OTEXA reported.
In quantity terms, imports from China dropped to 4.79 billion SME from 6.71 billion SME, down 28.57 percent.
In the same period, the Chinese share of the US share of clothing imports slumped to 19.95 percent from 21.76 percent in the same months of 2022.
USA’s import from Vietnam, the second largest source of apparel import, saw negative growth of 24.76 percent from a year ago period to $8.21 billion in the first seven months of 2022.
During the period under review, quantity-wise imports also fell 29.31 percent to 2.20 billion SME from 3.11 billion SME in the comparable period of earlier year.
During this review period, US imports of garments from Bangladesh dropped 19.82 percent year on year to $4.56 billion, while quantity-wise, a year-on-year decline of 29.03 percent to 1.39 billion SME was witnessed.
However, the share of Bangladesh in the USA’s global apparel import has increased to about 10 percent in the above-mentioned period compared to 9.68 percent in the same months of 2022.
Negative growth was also observed in the case of other top sourcing countries such as Mexico at 8.69 percent, India at 21.13 percent, Indonesia at 27.26 percent, Cambodia at 30.10 percent and Pakistan at 30.61 percent.
US global clothing imports fall 22.28% between Jan-July 2023
