The USA indisputably is the main market that absorbs the largest quantity of apparel exports during years of field study with augmenting share rates in the total quantity and amount year after year. The USA market absorbs different qualities of apparel. .
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Central American countries continued this year losing shares on US apparel market although benefiting from US duty-free entry. Exporters are heavily dependent on sales of a few categories of knitted products, in addition, as a clear sign they could suffer from competition with Asian countries in the post quota period. .
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US apparel imports from the CBI countries were up 7.29% in the first nine months of the year in volume terms, compared with a rise of 11.88% in total US imports. .
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Apparel from Central American and other Caribbean countries confirmed their relative decline on US market with shares falling from 21.03% in January-September 2002 to 20.17% in the same period of 2003. Apparel from CBI countries still accounted for 23.79% of total US imports in 1998, by comparison.
Date:12/11/2003
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