Who wins from textile market liberalization?

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).