Day: September 30, 2015

Regional production-trade network (RPTN) refers to a vertical industry collaboration system between countries that are geographically close to each other. Within a RPTN, each country specialized in certain portions of supply chain activities based on its respective comparative advantages so as to maximize the efficiency of the whole supply chain.

There are three major textile and apparel (T&A) RPTNs in the world today:

• Asia: more economically advanced countries/regions such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China supply textiles to the less economically developed countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for apparel manufacturing, where the wage level was much lower. On the other hand, Japan is a leading apparel importer and consumption market in Asia.
• Europe: among EU members, textile inputs can be supplied by developed countries in Southern and Western Europe such as Italy and Germany. In terms of apparel manufacturing in the European Union, low and medium-priced products can be undertaken by developing countries in Southern and Eastern Europe such as Poland and Romania, whereas high-end luxury products can be produced by Southern and Western European countries such as Italy and France. Furthermore, finished apparel can be shipped to developed EU members such as UK, Germany, France and Italy.
• America: within the region, the United States as a developed country supplies textile materials to developing countries in North, Central and South America (such as Mexico and countries in the Caribbean region), which assemble imported textiles into apparel by taking advantage of the local low labor cost. The finished apparel articles are eventually exported to the United States for consumption.

Latest data from the World Trade Organization (WTO) shows that RPTN in the above three regions remain an important feature of today’s global T&A trade as the graphs shown below:

(Note: Data comes from the World Trade Organization)

Particularly, three specific trade flows are worth watching:

One is Asian countries’ growing dependence on textile supply from within the region, which rose to 90.2% in 2014 from 87.7% in 2000. This is a reflection of a growing integrated T&A supply-chain in Asia. As a result, apparel “Made in Asia” is becoming even more price-competitive in the world marketplace today and this has posted pressures on the operation of the T&A RPTNs in EU and America.

Second one is the stable intra-region trade pattern both for textile and apparel in EU. In 2014, 58.8% of EU’s (28 members) textile imports and 46.2% of apparel imports came from other EU members; at the same time, 68.8% of EU’s (28 members) textile exports and 74.7% of apparel exports also went to other EU members.

Additionally, developing countries in North, Central and South America still heavily rely on regional supply of textile inputs; at the same time, their finished apparel are also mostly consumed within the region. Data show that 80.3% of American countries’ textile imports still came from within the region in 2014; at the same time, 88.9% of American countries’ apparel exports were also shipped to the region, mostly the United States and Canada as the final consumption market.

Sheng Lu