Apparel / Textiles & Accessories

Since the beginning of this year, under the background of complex and changeable situation at home and abroad, frequent trade frictions have brought a lot of pressure to my country's textile and garment enterprises. Efforts to defend the interests of enterprises and escort the export of textiles and garments are crucial to stabilizing foreign trade.

According to the data, in the first half of this year, China's textile and garment industry encountered a total of 9 trade remedy investigations, and the number of cases increased by 28% year-on-year, involving the European Union, Peru, Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia. The total amount involved was US$1.63 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27%. The 9 cases of trade remedy investigations include Peru’s 100% polyester fabric anti-dumping investigation, the EU’s two original anti-dumping investigations against Zhejiang Hailede New Materials Co., Ltd., Turkish nylon or other polyamide yarn safeguard measures review investigation, Brazilian knitting 7 review cases including the second anti-dumping sunset review investigation and the second anti-dumping sunset review investigation of EU polyester high-strength yarn.

Since the beginning of this year, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles has taken advantage of its platform advantages and industry status to actively organize and respond to trade friction cases, and strive to minimize losses. "At present, the industry defense of the Brazilian polyester fiber yarn (except sewing thread) anti-dumping case and the Peru clothing safeguard measure case launched in 2019 has not yet been concluded. The EU has launched three investigations against the same type of polyester high-tenacity yarn. The handling of the case has become the focus of the work of the Textile Chamber of Commerce in the first half of this year," said Wang Yu, vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles.

Organizing enterprises to participate in industry defense

On March 8, 2021, the Brazilian investigation authority initiated an anti-dumping investigation on polyester yarns, and on September 29, 2021, a preliminary ruling was made on issues such as dumping, damage, causality, and public interest, and it was decided to continue the investigation and not take Temporary measures. In the process of responding to this investigation case, the Textile Chamber of Commerce actively organized enterprises to participate in the industry defense. Wang Yu introduced, "In order to strive for favorable rulings for Chinese enterprises, the Textile Chamber of Commerce has closely followed various domestic and foreign policies related to the case. There are many obstacles set up, timely submission of defense opinions without damage to the industry, defense from the perspective of public interests, try our best to promote the use of the production cost and domestic sales data of Chinese enterprises by the Pakistani investigation authorities, and mobilize Pakistani importers and downstream users to lobby.” At present. The case has not yet issued a final ruling.

As one of Peru's important industrial categories, the textile and garment industry is an important force in its economic development. Since 2020, the Peruvian textile industry has been hit hard by the epidemic. With the gradual slowdown of the epidemic, Peru has accelerated the pace of economic recovery. In order to protect the development of the domestic textile and garment industry, it has continued to launch trade remedy investigations. In December 2021, Peru launched a second safeguard investigation on textiles and garments imported from China. In this regard, the Textile Chamber of Commerce organized the enterprises involved in the case to hold an online response coordination meeting in a timely manner. In the end, 11 enterprises decided to participate in the non-damage defense of the industry organized by the Textile Chamber of Commerce.

"In response to the case, the Textile Chamber of Commerce took a series of key measures in the first half of this year, including writing preliminary product exclusion suggestions, notarizing and certifying industry representatives, and conducting statistical analysis on the import and export of the products involved in the past three years. Measures and product exclusions, filing announcements and technical reports to submit defense opinions, etc." Wang Yu introduced, in addition, the Textile Chamber of Commerce also sent letters to the three Peruvian ministries on behalf of the industry to express opinions on the case handling and interim measures. The Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Peru cooperated with the country to negotiate with the Peruvian investigation authorities and relevant ministries and commissions on many occasions to oppose the levy of taxes. With the joint efforts of all parties, on May 14 this year, the Peruvian government issued an official announcement that the Peruvian Multi-sectoral Committee ruled that no temporary measures should be taken to avoid the adverse impact of temporary taxation measures on enterprises. The final ruling of the case will be issued in the near future.

Do a good job of early warning of cases

Since the beginning of this year, the EU has launched three investigations on polyester high-tenacity yarn products exported to China: the second sunset review investigation was launched on February 23, the mid-term review investigation of anti-dumping against the industry was launched on June 30, and a separate investigation against Hailid was launched. The group initiated an anti-dumping investigation. The three investigations involved China's exports to the EU amounting to US$235 million, which are of great interest to companies.

To this end, the Textile Chamber of Commerce has organized two companies to hold a response coordination meeting. Wang Yu analyzed that, "As far as the sunset review investigation is concerned, the EU generally does not revise the existing tax rate, but decides to cancel or continue the original measures by judging whether dumping and damage will continue or recur, which undoubtedly increases the enterprises involved in the case. The difficulty of coping and the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the response. In response to this situation, the Textile Chamber of Commerce gave enterprises a detailed introduction to the new investigation methods adopted by the EU after the EU revised its anti-dumping regulations in December 2017, as well as new emerging methods in the EU market. Changes, and a detailed understanding of the company's recent export situation. Regarding the two investigations, the anti-dumping mid-term review and the separate anti-dumping investigation against the company, the Textile Chamber of Commerce did not organize an industry defense on the basis of the comprehensive enterprise's willingness to respond, but because the Textile Chamber of Commerce announced in advance Early warning information of the case and a coordination meeting for responding to the case were held in a timely manner, and the main companies involved in the case submitted the sample files on time, thus avoiding punitive tariffs. Good result."

Although, in the first half of this year, there have been frequent cases of trade remedy investigations in the textile and garment industry, but compared with 22 cases in 2020, the peak number of cases in the past ten years, it is still at a normal level at present. According to the expectation of the Textile Chamber of Commerce, the total number of trade remedy investigation cases in the textile and garment industry this year will continue to be the same as the same period last year. In the future, the textile chamber of Contribute to the sustainable development of the industry.