Textile and Apparel Industries

Analyzing the Competitiveness of the Textile and Apparel Sector among USMCA Trade Agreement Partners

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Abstract

The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) is an updated version of the nearly 25-year-old, trillion-dollar North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA has facilitated the formation of a regional T&A supply chain among its members. Within this supply chain, the United States typically exports textiles to Mexico, which turns imported yarns and fabrics into apparel and then exports finished apparel back to the United and Canada for consumption. With the revised agreement, USMCA eases the requirements for duty-free treatment for certain textile and apparel products but tightens the requirements for other products. Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index, which measures the share of a given product in a country’s total exports relative to the share of that product in total world exports, was used to understand the competitiveness of the textile and apparel Sector among USMCA Trading Partners. The results pointed out that though United States has comparative advantage in textile products, United States has not been able to increase its share in world clothing trade at a faster pace

Keywords: USMCA, United States, comparative advantage, Apparel, Textile, Free Trade

How to Cite:

Das, D., (2020) “Analyzing the Competitiveness of the Textile and Apparel Sector among USMCA Trade Agreement Partners”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.11841