Draged by the slowdown in global economic growth and the deterioration of the trade environment, the scale of global merchandise trade decreased in 2019. According to the “2020 World Trade Report” released by the World Trade Organization at the end of July, the global merchandise trade volume reached 19 trillion US dollars in 2019. The trade volume decreased by 3% year-on-year, the trade volume decreased by 0.1% year-on-year, and the trade volume growth rate was far lower. Since the financial crisis, the average annual growth rate has been 2.3%. In 2019, the export value of industrial manufactured products, including textiles and clothing, decreased by 2% year-on-year.
Global trade in textiles and clothing has also decreased. According to the report data, global textile and clothing exports in 2019 were US$799.63 billion, and imports were US$839.54 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.9% and 3.1% respectively. From the perspective of product structure, clothing trade is relatively more stable. In 2019, global textile exports were US$306.12 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.1%, and clothing exports were US$493.51 billion, a year-on-year decrease of only 0.1%.
China’s textile industry has maintained a stable scale advantage in the international export market, and its share of total global exports has only declined slightly. According to WTO data, my country exported a total of US$272 billion in textiles and clothing in 2019, accounting for 34% of the global exports of textiles and clothing in the same period, a slight decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the 34.2% share in 2018. my country’s textile export competitiveness has improved. In 2019, the export value was US$120 billion, accounting for 39.2% of global textile exports, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from 2018, reflecting the role of my country’s textile fabrics, chemical fibers and other products in the international supply chain. promote. In 2019, my country’s apparel exports were US$152 billion, accounting for 30.8% of global apparel exports, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from 2018.
Figure 1: my country’s textile and apparel export value and global share
Data source: WTO
From the perspective of the top 10 countries and regions in the import and export of textiles and clothing, the ranking changes of the major import and export countries and regions Not big. The export market shares of Vietnam, Bangladesh and Türkiye have continued to increase. The U.S. import share increased, while the EU import share declined.
Due to the fact that the UK has withdrawn from the EU and is counted separately, and its textile and clothing import and export scale is large, some countries have been replaced by the UK and have not been included in the list. The UK is an important consumer market in Europe, ranking 7th in textile imports and 4th in clothing imports; the UK ranks 8th in clothing exports.
The EU maintains the second place in textile and apparel exports and the first place in imports, with an export share of 25.3%, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points from 2018. Among them, the share of textile exports fell by 1.8 percentage points to 21.7%, and the share of clothing exports fell by 0.8 percentage points to 27.6%. The import share dropped by 5.1 percentage points to 29.4%, of which the textile import share dropped by 1.8 percentage points to 21.3%, and the clothing import share dropped by 4.2 percentage points to 34.2%.
The United States’ share of the import market has increased. The U.S. share of the global textile and apparel import market increased by 0.3 percentage points to 15%, indicating that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy in 2019 were generally stable. Among them, the share of textile imports increased by 0.9 percentage points to 10%, and the share of clothing imports increased by 0.8 percentage points to 18.2%.
Vietnam’s export share has increased. In 2019, Vietnam exported a total of US$40 billion in textiles and clothing, accounting for approximately 5% of global textile and clothing exports, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 2018. The ranking of textile exports rose from 8th in 2018 to 7th, and the market share increased by 0.3 percentage points to 2.9%; the ranking and share of clothing exports remained unchanged. Vietnam’s textile import share dropped slightly by 0.1 percentage point, but its ranking surpassed China, jumping from fourth place in 2018 to third place.
Bangladesh’s ranking remains unchanged. The share of textile imports fell by 0.2 percentage points to 3.1%, and the share of clothing exports increased by 0.1 percentage points to 6.8%.
Turkey’s export share increased slightly. Turkey’s ranking remains unchanged, but its textile and clothing export market share increased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5%, of which the textile export share increased by 0.1 percentage points and the clothing export share increased by 0.1 percentage points.
India’s textile and apparel export ranking and overall export share remain unchanged compared with 2018.
Table 1: Top 10 world textile exporters in 2019
data Source: WTO
Table 2: Top 10 world apparel exporters in 2019
Data source: WTO
Table 3: Top 10 textile importers in the world in 2019
Data source: WTO
Table 4: Top 10 clothing importers in the world in 2019
Data source: WTO </p
