China, Nicaragua begin talks for FTA ; textile trade may get boost
Fibre2Fashion - 23 July 2022
China, Nicaragua begin talks for FTA ; textile trade may get boost
China and Nicaragua are moving ahead for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) and have formally established a bilateral intergovernmental economic and trade cooperation mechanism. Both the countries have begun negotiations to achieve the goal, according to China’s ministry of commerce. This may boost textile trade between the two countries.
Last week, Chinese minister of commerce Wang Wentao and Nicaragua’s foreign minister Moncada, on behalf of the two governments, signed the “Arrangement between the Government of China and the Government of Nicaragua on the Early Harvest of Free Trade Agreements”, jointly announcing the launch of the China-Nicaragua comprehensive FTA negotiations.
In addition, both countries also signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of a Mixed Committee for Economic, Trade and Investment Cooperation, formally establishing the bilateral governments’ economic and trade cooperation mechanism.
The latest steps by both the governments are likely to result in increased trade, including apparel and home textiles trade, between both nations. Although the current China-Nicaragua textile and apparel trade is negligible, China has surplus trade with the Central American country.
Nicaragua imported mere 0.02 per cent apparel of China’s total exports in year 2021. In terms of home textiles, Nicaragua has share of 0.01 per cent in China’s total exports to the world, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro.
China exported apparel worth $3.240 million to Nicaragua in May 2022 which was higher than $2.361 million of April. China exports dipped to 0.555 million in February from $2.443 million in January. The export was 0.965 million in March 2022. Annually, China’s apparel exports were $27.796 million in 2021, $20.015 million in 2020 and $22.558 million in 2019, as per TexPro.
China exported home textiles of $0.127 million in May 2022 which was higher than $0.071 million of April. Annually, China exported home textiles worth $2.736 million in 2021, $6.988 million in 2020 and $2.040 million in 2019.
On the other hand, China’s imports of textile products from Nicaragua were meagre in terms of value.
