"Paris Exhibition" Staged Industry Diplomacy

During the recent twelfth China Textile and clothing trade exhibition (Paris) (CTAF) and Paris international clothing and apparel Exhibition (APP Paris), a discussion on the future development trend of textile trade between China and Europe attracted the attention of the international industry and the media.

The representatives of China textile industry responded positively to the hot issues such as the status quo of China EU textile trade, which were concerned by the European industry, and made a clear exposition of the current pformation and upgrading of China's textile industry.

The active voice of our textile industry on the international professional exhibition platform, conveyed the firm belief and positive attitude towards the pformation development, and cleared the European industry's doubts about the direction of China's industrial development, and the effect of foreign exchange can be regarded as an excellent "industry diplomacy".

On the first day of the afternoon, a seminar entitled "the status and prospects of China's textile and garment industry" was held. Limado, chairman of the CEDITH of the European Mediterranean circle, quoted the statistics from the European Union statistics bureau (Limantour) to review the general situation of China's exports of textiles and clothing in the past 10 years.

He also contrasted the labor costs of China and its neighboring Asian neighbors, and paid attention to the rapid rise of labor costs in China in recent years, which triggered the discussion on the industrial competitiveness between China and Europe and the future development trend of China EU textile and clothing trade.

Statistics from the European Bureau of statistics show that as the world's leading exporter of clothing, China (except T-shirts ranked third, next to Bangladesh and Turkey) has been in the EU for many years.

Imports accounted for 42% of the EU's total clothing imports.

From 2005 to 2013, China's share in the EU's textile and clothing import market increased from 31% to 37.6%.

European businesses generally believe that when the EU opened the door to the market, China became the biggest winner in the market.

At the same time, the export of textile and clothing to the European Union in Mediterranean countries has declined.

For example, Turkey's share dropped from 16.7% to 13.9%, Tunisia dropped from 3.9% to 2.5%, and Morocco from 3.4% to 2.5%.

But at the same time, Limado also pointed out that the export of textiles and garments in China reached its peak in 2011. In the past two years, the export of textiles and garments in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Kampuchea has been increasing rapidly. These textile and garment exporting countries are rapidly rising. The rapid rise of labor costs in China has challenged the export price advantage of many years.

Lin Yunfeng, vice president of the textile industry branch of the China International Trade Promotion Commission, responded positively to President Limado's concerns.

He pointed out that at present, China's economy is entering a new normal period of pformation and upgrading. As an important traditional advantage industry, China's textile industry is also undergoing deep industrial upgrading and adjustment under challenge and pressure.

In a sense, 2012 and 2013 are indeed difficult times for China's textile and garment industry.

However, the biggest challenge at that time did not come from the rise in labor costs, but because of the huge cotton price differentials at home and abroad caused by China's cotton policy, resulting in an increase in the overall cost of China's textile products.

With regard to the comparison between the current labor prices in China and the surrounding Asia Pacific countries, Lin Yunfeng pointed out that at present, the turning point of China's demographic dividend has passed, and the rise in labor prices has become an inevitable trend.

With the decline of the international competitiveness of China's textile industry brought about by the low level competitive advantage, the high-level competitive advantage is gradually taking shape.

At the same time, China's textile industry has the integrated competitive advantage formed by the mature and complete industrial system, as well as the

China's textile industry still has strong international competitiveness because of its relatively obvious international competitive advantage in terms of quality and market share.

In the future, China's textile industry will give up the growth mode of low-end manufacturing. At the same time, it will focus on creating four new areas of international economic cooperation and competition in the fields of science and technology, independent brand creation, sustainable development and innovative talents, so as to accelerate the upgrading of the core competitiveness of the industry so as to achieve the objective needs of the new orientation of international division of labor.

After decades of continuous reform and innovation, China's textile industry has played an important role in the supply chain system of international textile and apparel production and consumption with its complete and efficient industrial chain mode.

In the future, the development mode of China's textile industry will bid farewell to the traditional extensive development mode, and will not recover the low-end product orders and market that has been pferred, but strive to pursue the collaborative development of higher quality and efficiency, and deal with challenges from various aspects by releasing the driving force of innovation.

Recall that after the abolition of the global textile export quota in 2005, China's textile exports showed explosive growth, which was once described by some European and American media as "a monster of floods".

Today, we are in the new normal period of pformation and upgrading. We are actively launching the industry's own voice to the mainstream of the international industry, eliminating the doubts of Europe and even the international industry on China's economic slowdown, and creating a favorable international market for China's textile and clothing trade.

And the environment of public opinion is undoubtedly a bright spot in this Paris exhibition.