Trends in Textile Imports

The dynamics of U.S. textile imports since 1990 was similar to the pattern for clothing imports. Previously major sources of textiles were surpassed by countries that were well behind the frontrunners in 1990. However, the pattern for textile imports differs from clothing imports in two ways.

First, while China has risen to the top supplier of U.S. textile imports, it is not CRS-13 dominating the market like it is for clothing. Second, the other top textile suppliers are not experiencing absolute declines in their sales to the United States, as has been the case with clothing.

Table below lists the top five suppliers of textile imports for the United States from 1990 to 2006. From 1993 to 2005, Canada was the leading source of textile imports for the United States

It was superseded in 2006 by China, which had moved up from being the fifth largest textile supplier in 1990 and second in 2003. By contrast, Japan slid from being the leading source of textile imports in 1990 to fourth in 1995 and disappeared from the top 5 in 1996. India, which was not among the top five sources from 1990 to 2001, replaced Italy for fifth in 2002 and moved into third place in 2006.