Apart from consumers, that is. A graphic from this year’s Global Economic Prospects report of the year-on-year growth of textile exports in relation to overall merchandise export growth. Who got the biggest trade boost from the end of textile and garment import quotas? You might be surprised
The biggest gains in terms of the boost to merchandise trade were in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, while the largest losses were those of Kenya, Nepal, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Tajikistan. The data shows the year-on-year increase for the first half of 2005 (first six months of the new non-quota system) in exports to the former restricted markets of the USA and Europe. Click on the thumbnail.
Note that the “losers” are not, in any case, big textile or garment exporters (although Nepal has an important garment and traditional textile sector).