US imports of Chinese textiles and clothing fall 27%

Donald Trump's new tariffs have not slowed US imports of textiles and clothing, which remained stable at $80.5 billion during the first three quarters. While China, the country's main supplier, saw its shipments fall 27% during the period, buyers simply shifted their orders to other Asian countries.

The release of these figures was delayed until December by the “shutdown,” which shut down the U.S. federal government amid bitter budget negotiations. The consequences of the all-out tariff confrontation initiated by the White House in April were widely anticipated; They can now be quantified.

China, Donald Trump's designated trade adversary, exported “only” $14.3 billion in textiles and clothing to the US market over nine months. This represents a 27% decline over the January-September period, but China remains the top supplier to the United States.

Above all, China's decline masks an acceleration in American orders from its direct competitors. Southeast Asia's textile and clothing imports rose 15.9% to $24.3 billion.

A remodeling of American supply

Donald Trump sought to stop the influx of foreign production. In the end, the American president only managed to change his origin slightly. To offset the new tariffs, American buyers turned to other countries that sometimes paid less taxes and, importantly, offered lower production costs.

Vietnam, the second largest supplier of textiles and clothing to the United States, recorded an increase of 14.6%. In the ranking of suppliers, Vietnam is followed by India, with an increase of 10%, and, above all, Bangladesh, with an increase of 18.2%. Cambodia (+25.8%), Indonesia (+12.9%) and Pakistan (+9.3%) also posted strong gains.

Imports from the T-MEC area (US, Mexico and Canada), where political tensions were high, remained practically stable (-0.9%) at $3.8 billion, of which $3 billion came from Mexican production.

Europe remains stable

The European Union, the seventh largest supplier of textiles and clothing to the US, posted a modest 1.9% increase to $4.04 billion in goods. This is a notable improvement compared to the 2.6% drop recorded in 2024.

Italy, with $1.9 billion, remained stable for nine months, as did Portugal with $469 million. Germany accelerated 9.3% to $373 million, while France rose 2.2% to $330 million.

In the Euromed region, US customs figures show a 6.6% drop for Turkish products, to $1.7 billion. Egypt rose 16.4% to $1.1 billion, while Morocco fell 16% to $177 million and Tunisia rose 8.2% to $81 million.

Trends that started in January

This slowdown is even more evident in light of the figures recorded in 2024. At that time, China exported $26 billion worth of textiles and clothing to the US, an increase of 3.5% that exceeded the total growth of US imports in this field (+2.6%).

After the election of Donald Trump and ahead of “Liberation Day,” the April 2 event that marks the announcement of new tariffs, panic set in among American shoppers. In the first quarter, they suddenly accelerated their imports of textiles and clothing by 9.4% compared to the period from January to March 2024.

China captured only 3.6% of this increase, while other countries less attacked by Washington benefited much more from the situation. These included Vietnam (+14%), India (+20%), Bangladesh (+25%), Indonesia (+20%), Cambodia (+15.8%) and Pakistan (+10.5%).