Senior Director, Media Relations
WASHINGTON– The National Retail Federation today joined eight other business organizations to release “Imports Work for American Workers,” an economic impact study which found that imports support more than 21 million American jobs.
“Imports are a vital component of the U.S. economy.”
Jonathan Gold, NRF Vice President of Supply Chain and Customs Policy.
The study focuses on the net impact of imports on U.S. jobs including statistics on sectors such as retail, apparel, transportation, manufacturing and consumer technology. The study also looks at how imports support jobs in states across the U.S. as well as trade policy initiatives pending before Congress and the administration with the potential to preserve or diminish import-related jobs.
A More-Responsible Network Forms Through Sourcing at MAGIC Online apparelnews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apparelnews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Source: 2020 USFIA Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study
Measured by value, more than 70% of US apparel imports still came from Asian countries in 2020 – a pattern that has stayed stable for over a decade. Except for China, other leading Asian apparel suppliers all gained market shares in 2020 from a year earlier. This includes Vietnam (19.6% in 2020 vs 16.2% in 2019), ASEAN members (32.3% in 2020 vs 27.4% in 2019), Bangladesh (8.2% in 2020 vs 7.1% in 2019), and Cambodia (4.4% in 2020 vs 3.2% in 2019).
According to the 2020 US Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study released by the US Fashion Industry Association (USFIA),
Asian suppliers overall enjoy two competitive advantages as apparel sourcing bases: sourcing cost, and flexibility and agility. These two factors are also the most relevant during the pandemic.
Stores are open, but vendors face longer payment terms and financial uncertainty. By: Ben Unglesbee
The retail supply chain, like the retail industry itself, has gone through a dramatic period of stress since March 2020.
The early months of the COVID-19 crisis brought ubiquitous order cancellations. Almost as pervasive were retailers efforts to push out payments for shipments. In turn the cash flow crisis in retail hit suppliers just as hard. Businesses furloughed employees, negotiated with landlords and other vendors, and wondered if they would be able to stay in business, just as retailers did.
By summer stores had reopened in most areas and orders were coming in which is crucial for both retailers and vendors but suppliers financial woes persisted.
6 Feb in 11:00 Emerging Europe
A combination of government-led reform, international pressure, higher wages, and the return of migrant workers from abroad has all-but eradicated the use of child and forced labour in the Uzbek cotton harvest. As Emerging Europe
reports, although some local vestiges still remain, the systematic and systemic use of child and forced labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry has come to an end, according to a new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The report, compiled for the World Bank, shows that one in eight people of working age in Uzbekistan participated in the 2020 cotton harvest, which makes it the world’s largest recruitment effort. Sixty-five per cent of pickers were women, and the vast majority were from rural areas.