Import prices have fallen in the case of nine of the USA's ten largest clothing suppliers, according to a new report in the Textiles Intelligence publication "Global Apparel Markets".

In the 12 months ending May 31, 2010, there were price falls in US imports from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan and Vietnam. The only exception was El Salvador.

In fact, the average price of US clothing imports fell to its lowest level in over 20 years, having dropped by 7.4% from US$3.12 per sme (square metre equivalent) to only US$2.89 per sme.

The main reason for the drop in price was the elimination of safeguard restrictions against US imports of certain items from China at the end of 2008. When the restrictions were introduced in 2006 they created scarcity. Demand exceeded supply and therefore Chinese exporters were able to raise their prices. Once the restrictions were removed, there was no upper limit to the supplies available and prices fell.

In fact the average price of US clothing imports from China declined in 2009 by 9.6% to US$2.66 per sme -- its lowest level since 2005.

The average price of clothing imported from China had also fallen sharply in 2005 as imports surged following the global elimination of quotas at the end of 2004. This pattern therefore seems to have been repeated, although to a lesser extent.

US imports of several categories of clothing from China previously subject to safeguard restrictions surged in volume terms in the year ending May 31, 2010, while their average import prices plummeted. For example, imports of cotton trousers increased by 42.0% in value and by an even faster 70.2% in volume, reflecting a 16.6% decline in their average price.

Imports of cotton knitted shirts increased by 34.5% in value and by 63.0% in volume, reflecting a 17.5% decline in their average price, and imports of man-made fibre trousers increased by just 2.3% in value but by as much as 32.1% in volume, reflecting a 22.6% decline in their average price.

The decline in the average price of US clothing imports from China has had a detrimental effect on the average prices of imports from other suppliers as they too have been forced to drop their prices in order to compete with China.

For example, the average price of US clothing imports from Vietnam fell by 7.5% in 2009. Price drops were witnessed in particular in the two biggest categories of clothing imported from Vietnam -- namely cotton knitted shirts and cotton trousers. Not surprisingly, these two categories were also two of the main categories of imports from China whose prices had dropped sharply.

The average price of US clothing imports from Bangladesh, meanwhile, fell by a more modest 1.9%. Nonetheless, the price decline was the first since 2003 and showed the pressure that exporters in different countries have been under since the elimination of safeguard restrictions against US imports from China.

Other falls include a 10.1% reduction in the average price of US clothing imports from Cambodia -- to its lowest level since 2004. Also the average price of US clothing imports from India fell by 5.0% to its lowest level in over 20 years.