According to the Office of Textiles and Apparel at the International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, the nation’s imports of textiles and apparel during January-March 2017 decreased by 3.89% year-on-year to US$24,288.55 million. However, the first-quarter import quantity rose by 1.18% to 14,460.82 million square meter equivalents (SME).
First-quarter imports of apparel decreased by 1.96% in value to US$18,923.27 million, while the volume grew by 1.51% to 6,349.50 million SME. Imports from China (the largest supplier) declined by 5.53% in value to US$5,753.46 million, but rose by 1.67% quantitatively to 2,396.60 million SME.
Apparel imports from Vietnam (the second largest supplier) amounted to US$2,765.21 million (up 7.21%), 898.12 million SME (up 10.22%), and those from Bangladesh were at US$1,368.51 million (down 5.94%), 512.21 million SME (down 1.05%). Imports from Indonesia came to US$1,219.98 million (down 2.84%), 348.41 million SME (down 0.05%), and those from India totaled US$1,044.36 million (down 3.02%), 302.34 million SME (up 0.86%).