China's share of U.S. apparel imports drops sharply in 2022

In 2022, China's share of U.S. apparel imports declined significantly. U.S. apparel imports from China increased by 31% in 2021, while in 2022 the figure decreased by 3% and imports from other countries increased by 10.9%.

China's share of U.S. apparel imports declined from 37.8 % to 34.7% in 2022, while the share of other countries increased from 62.2% to 65.3%.

Many cotton products imported from China showed double-digit declines. While for chemical fiber products, men's/boys' knit shirts imports from China increased by 22.4% year-on-year, and women's/girls' category decreased by 15.4%.

When compared with before pandemic outbreak, U.S. imports of many categories of apparel from China went down significantly in 2022, and imports from other regions moved up significantly, indicating that U.S. apparel imports were moving away from China.

The unit price of U.S. apparel imports from both China and other regions rebounded in 2022, rising 14.4% and 13.8% year-on-year respectively. In the long run, the competitive advantage of Chinese products in international markets will be affected as work and production costs rise.