EU clothing imports from China continue to fall
25/08/2016
This poor start to the year follows a 12.5% decline in 2015, which saw imports from China drop to their lowest level since 2006. The country’s share of EU clothing imports is now 35.1%, a significant drop from the 43.3% share it had in 2014.
The decrease in clothing arriving into the EU from China reflects the growing number of Chinese companies who have chosen to move at least some of their clothing manufacturing to countries such as Cambodia or Myanmar, where the cost of labour is lower.
Although China remains the EU’s largest clothing supplier, imports from Bangladesh (+8%), Cambodia (+17.7%) and Pakistan (8.4%) rose during the first three months of the year.
Bangladesh and Cambodia benefit from duty-free access to the EU through the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement.
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