Textile And Clothing Industry: Blowout And Friction Coexist Ten Years After Joining WTO

join WTO For China's fashion industry, it means further opening, more direct competition and broader market 。

Therefore, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of China's accession to the WTO, we need to stand at the height of global trade to discuss and summarize the practical significance of WTO in China's fashion industry.

Based on this, as the second in a series of reports about the tenth anniversary of China's fashion industry's entry into the WTO, we focus on China spin product Trade The change of the environment, that is, behind the high growth brought about by the accession to the WTO, the new problem - which increasing trade friction is becoming a subject that we need to learn and master urgently.

There is no denying the trade achievements of China's textile industry after its accession to the WTO. It can even be said that the ten years since China's accession to the WTO have been one of the fastest and best periods for China's textile industry.

However, with the digital success, we are also facing increasing trade friction, which has become a new problem that we need to solve urgently.

Blowout after China's entry into WTO

Benefiting from China's accession to the WTO, China's textile and clothing industry has achieved leapfrog development in the past decade, not only doubling its total export volume, but also "changing" its position in the global market.

According to the data from China Textile Industry Association, China's total textile exports reached 206.5 billion US dollars in 2010, an increase of 75.72% over the export of 117.5 billion US dollars in 2005, the first year of the cancellation of global textile trade quotas, and an increase of 268.75% over the 56 billion US dollars in 2000 before joining the WTO. The momentum of development is amazing, and there are few competitors around the world.

While the total export volume has doubled, the position of China's textile industry in the global market has also changed year by year, growing rapidly. This is mainly reflected in the proportion of China's textile and clothing exports in the global market.

It is also the data from China Textile Industry Association. In 2010, China's textile and clothing exports accounted for 32.71% of the global market. Under the new economic situation, the overall competitiveness of the industry is still improving, which is nearly 9 points higher than the 24% of China's share in the first year of the global quota cancellation in 2005. In 2000, China's share of 15% of global trade doubled.

At present, China's textile industry exports have accounted for more than 30% of the global market share, and its position is unmatched.

Trade friction normalization

The figures proved successful. Ten years after joining the WTO, China's textile and clothing industry experienced a boom. However, with the further increase of its global market share, China's textile industry inevitably fell into an increasingly frequent trade friction dispute.

According to the data, the past 10 years have also witnessed the rapid growth of China's textile industry in the face of international trade frictions. In particular, since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the process of economic recovery in various countries has been further divided. Some major economies have strengthened their macro policy preferences, and trade protectionism has been heating up. China has become the main target of trade protectionism. From 1980 to 1989, China's anti-dumping cases accounted for 4.6% of the total number of anti-dumping cases in the world; 13.2% from 1990 to 1999; From 2000 to 2009, China's anti-dumping cases accounted for 26.3% of the total number of anti-dumping cases in the world, including 34.7% from 2005 to 2009.

As the main export products of China, textiles and clothing have always accounted for a large proportion in global trade relief cases since China's accession to the WTO 10 years ago. According to the Investment Analysis and Long term Forecast Report on China's Chemical Fiber Industry from 2010 to 2015 released by CIC, from 2001 to 2008, foreign countries launched 55 special safeguard measures against China's textiles. In 2009, the global trade protection cases against China's textile and clothing exports reached a new historical high. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, there were 45 anti-dumping cases against China's textiles and clothing in the world in 2009. It involves a series of products from raw materials to final products, such as chemical filament, chemical staple, curtain, ribbon, electric blanket, cord fabric, cotton yarn, bedspread, linen, narrow loom, etc.

From the perspective of trade protection measures, it can be roughly divided into two categories: policy and technical. The policy based trade protection measures mainly focus on "two counter measures and one safeguard". It restricts other countries from entering its market or threatens its related industries in the form of laws and means. In recent years, such measures have tended to be normalized, and more and more are taken by developing countries such as India and Pakistan, which are at the same level of competition with us in the international market.

Technical trade safeguard measures are mostly concentrated in the United States, Japan, the European Union, Canada and other developed economies. Developed economies have a sound standard system and testing institutions. In order to prevent the impact of China's textile and clothing on its market, a number of new regulations have been issued and updated, such as REACH regulations, the prohibition of azo dyes, the textile ecological labeling standard, OekoTex100 certification standard, etc.

These have in fact constituted obstacles to the future development of China's textile industry, and are also new topics that China urgently needs to learn. At the same time, it is also a test of whether we have been able to skillfully apply WTO rules and understand their essence since we joined the WTO ten years ago. Just as China's leather shoes used WTO rules to successfully exert pressure on the EU earlier, they eventually won the anti-dumping war.