Catalog

	Table of Contents
p. 17 of 77 BACK | NEXT Foreword, Acknowledgments, Contents, Acronyms and Abbreviations, Definitions I. Developing Asia and the World Developing Asia and the Pacific: Performance and Prospects Prospects for the World Economy in 2006-2007 Subregional Summaries Textiles and Clothing in the Post-Quota Era: The Outlook for Asian Suppliers Introduction: An end to quotas? Historical perspective on textiles and clothing in Asian development Recent performance under the ATC and in the (almost) post-quota era Impact of new US restrictions on the PRC's shipments of textiles and clothing Agenda for future trade reform Endnotes and references The Doha Development Agenda: Asian Challenges and Prospects after the Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, China II. Economic trends and prospects in developing Asia III. Routes for Asia's Trade Statistical appendix

Asian Development Outlook 2006 : I. Developing Asia and the World

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Textiles and Clothing in the Post-Quota Era: The Outlook for Asian Suppliers

The end to quota restrictions at the end of 2004 on textile and clothing exports of developing countries was expected to provide substantial market access benefits to competitive Asian suppliers led by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India. Indeed, over the course of 2005 shipments from the PRC to the United States and the European Union surged in volume and value terms. This led authorities in these two large markets to invoke the special safeguards clause in the PRC's World Trade Organization accession agreement and to restore quantitative limits on fast-growing categories of PRC shipments in the latter part of 2005 through 2008.

While marginal Asian and Pacific developing country suppliers, along with former large quota holders, have seen market shares in these two markets evaporate in 2005, a number of competitive Asian suppliers have done relatively well. In fact, they have outperformed non-Asian preferential suppliers in both markets with Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam all competing effectively. Going forward, it is likely that the PRC will lose some of the rapid gains it made in market share in 2005 and preferential non-Asian suppliers will continue to see contraction while other Asian suppliers increase their market shares. This suggests that the fears of the collapse of the industry with the end of quotas were exaggerated.

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