China´s textile and apparel imports reached 12.478 billion U.S. dollars (USD) during the January through August 2007 period, reflecting only 4.43 percent growth from the previous year and compares to exports of 111.73 billion USD during the same period. 11.248 billion of that total came in textiles. Asia was almost the exclusive supplier, providing 10.962 billion USD of the imports. Within Asia, the top supplier was Japan at 2.165 billion USD, Taiwan 2.111 billion USD, South Korea 1.710 billion USD and Hong Kong 1.158 billion USD. On a year-to-date basis, the import volume is down from all top Asian suppliers, while increasing 11.7 percent from the ASEAN trade block to 539 million USD.

Imports from Europe are up 24.65 percent at 1.032 billion U.S. dollars, which compares to imports from the NAFTA region of only 422 million USD. MMF products accounted for 5.851 billion USD of the imports, while cotton products account for 4.066 billion USD.

Source: globecotnews