Various Costs Surging, Leather Clothing Industry Blocked Inside And Outside

　　近年來，由于中國各種成本不斷上漲，以及受人民幣升值等多重因素影響，皮革服裝、毛皮服裝出口持續下降，特別是從2003年開始，皮革服裝和毛皮服裝出口退稅率由17%不斷下調，至2007年7月1日下調到5%，讓本已受內外夾攻的皮革服裝、毛皮服裝“雪上加霜”。 

In order to promote the healthy development of China's leather industry and expand exports, during this year's "two sessions", representatives suggested that the export rebate rate of leather clothing and fur clothing should be raised to 16%, consistent with textile and clothing.

The reasons are as follows.

(1) leather clothing and fur clothing industry is neither a high energy consumption nor a high pollution industry, but a labor-intensive industry closely related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. It has made positive contributions to solve the problem of labor employment and to flourish the township economy.

Leather clothing and fur clothing industry is a pollution-free labor intensive industry. Most of the production bases are built in towns and townships. The employees mainly come from the economically backward areas in the Midwest of China, and solve the employment problem of a large number of rural labor force.

At the same time, its main raw materials come from livestock, pigs, sheep and cattle.

Due to the great demand for raw materials in China's leather industry, the raw material of China's raw materials has been digested and the development of animal husbandry has been stimulated.

(two) leather clothing exports have declined for 6 consecutive years, and fur clothing exports have declined significantly for 3 consecutive years.

Since 2003, China's leather clothing exports have been declining continuously. In 2008, China exported 22 million 320 thousand leather garments, amounting to 930 million yuan, only 30% of its exports in 2003 and 40% of its exports. In 2009, China's leather clothing exports continued to decline, and January to October exports amounted to 15 million 590 thousand yuan, amounting to 650 million yuan, down 19% and 25% respectively over the same period.

Since 2005, China's fur clothing exports have been greatly reduced. In 2008, China exported 1 million 790 thousand fur garments, amounting to 250 million US dollars, only 28% of its exports in 2005 and 14% of its export volume.

(three) the competitiveness of China's leather garments in the international market has dropped significantly, and the market share lost is hard to recover.

At present, the most basic raw material of leather products in China is 5 to 14 percentage points higher than other countries in terms of import tariffs. Moreover, the export of leather garments and fur garments can not be fully refunded, and China's labor costs are higher than those of competitors such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam. The superposition effect of various cost increases has greatly reduced the competitiveness of China's leather clothing and fur clothing in the international market.

According to statistics released by the United Nations Statistical website, the proportion of China's leather garments exports to the world's total exports dropped from 49.1% in 2003 to 23.2% in 2008. The proportion of China's fur clothing exports to the world's total exports dropped from 60.1% in 2005 (the world's first) to 21.1% in 2008 (third in the world).

If effective measures are not taken in time, the share of China's leather clothing and fur clothing products in the international market will continue to decline.

From the international experience in the pfer of leather products elsewhere, the loss of international market share is hard to recover.

3 percentage points lower than textile and apparel.

Since 2008, China's leather garments and

The export tax rebate increased 2 times to 13%, and the export tax rebate rate was 3 percentage points lower than that of textile and apparel.

Leather clothing and fur clothing are part of the major categories of clothing, but the tax code is different from that of the industry. At the same time, leather clothing and fur clothing are also faced with the problem of unsustainable survival as well as textile and clothing. The export tax rebates for leather garments and fur clothing should be consistent with those of textile and clothing.