Outerwear. - Business Location Switzerland

2.3.2 Outward processing trade (OPT)
The analysis of the largest suppliers of OPT outerwear into France
in Table 12 shows a downturn in OPT. Overall, the OPT business
plays a minor role in France, accounting for only 0.66% of the total
outerwear clothing imports.
Tunisia is the most important OPT partner country for France.
Morocco is second, as it was in the previous two years. Belarus
is catching up to China and could become fourth in the coming
years.
Table 12: Imports of woven outerwear by gender and product categories, 2006-2008
Position Country 2006
[‘000 €]
2.3.3 Largest suppliers of outerwear
Table 13 gives a very good overview of the twenty major extra EU
countries supplying clothing to France from 2006 to 2008. The
share of clothing imports from extra EU countries in France was
48.6% in 2006 and had slightly increased to 48.7% in 2008.
The imports from outside the EU in 2008 amounted to € 6.4
billion, whereas € 6.7 billion were imported from the European
Union. While the total imports to France amounted to € 12.5 billion
in 2006, they exceeded € 13.1 billion in 2008, an increase of
4.8%. Overall, the growth rates of total imports increased by 3%
and 1%, respectively. The main import countries for France from
outside Europe are: China (€ 2.4 billion), Tunisia (€ 0.7 billion) and
Morocco (€ 0.6 billion). Morocco and Tunisia are French speaking
countries; this is a very important advantage for them when
exporting to France.
Change
from 2006
2007
[‘000 €]
Change
from 2007
2008
[‘000 €]
1 Tunisia 36599 -9% 33’480 -7% 31’249
2 Morocco 36’294 -21% 28’694 -24% 21’859
3 Ukraine 24’319 -10% 21’874 -27% 15’928
4 China 6’842 55% 10’636 -22% 8’301
5 Belarus 1’757 41% 2’486 106% 5’130
6 Serbia 1’831 -12% 1’613 -17% 1’345
7 Bosnia - Herzegovina 583 12% 653 17% 766
8 Hong Kong 451 5% 474 52% 719
9 Moldova 478 214% 1’500 -65% 529
10 Lao (People’s Democratic Republic) 0 0 400
11 Madagascar 840 -1% 835 -59% 340
12 Vietnam 38 194% 111 160% 289
13 India 339 270% 1’256 -81% 244
14 Turkey 31 11% 35 422% 182
15 Croatia 65 102% 131 -42% 76
16 Egypt 17 -100% 0 35
17 South Korea 0 0 19
18 USA 0 0 15
19 Thailand 44 -75% 11 -68% 3
20 Switzerland 0 28 -100% 0
Total 163’031 -36% 104’125 -16% 87’428
Source: Eurostat 2009
Outerwear 2010 l 19