I am writing this letter in the middle of May for our ITMA Special Edition expected to come off print in June， in time to be handed out in situ when our team is organizing a conference highlighting sustainable growth in new trends and demand， a theme glowing with ITMA2019 beam of light -“Sourcing for a Sustainable Future”.

I am on a trip to Zaozhuang city of Shandong province in China to help the local textile and garment industries map out a plan for a sustainable development at the time when environmental issue is heating up and the international business environment is also sizzling with hot problems that many exporters are not insulated， especially those companies whose businesses are largely dependent on U.S. market. I am with one of the companies in my visiting itinerary and the export manager told me that he was very much concerned with what would come out from the U.S. and China talks on the bilateral trade deal， which is right now going on in Washington in May 8th -10th， because the company is now pretty much taken up with the production for Walmarts order， and he is quite upset when he heard President Trump tweeters vowing to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports into the United States on an increased rate from 10% to 25% a few days earlier before the scheduled two-side negotiation even started.

Sure enough， his growing worries are spreading from one companys floor to the entire industrys facilities as the news came out that the two day talks on trade deal ended with no sigh of agreement. To make things worse， the United States has already increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent in a sign of Trumps waning patience with the negotiations for a win-win trade deal that both governments had expected would be achieved by this point of long road as a milestone to mark an end to the protracted length of trade war. In response， China would strike back in reciprocal manner and magnitude as it has done in previous arm wrestling. What and how China is going to counterattack both in depth and scope is not yet known at this moment， but Chinese vice premier Liu He， top negotiator for the bilateral trade consultations， said in a press interview that China will deal with the trade friction with the United States in reason-based policy and action. For the unilateral tariff increase from 10-to-25 percent rate imposed on $200 billion of Chinese goods， Vice Premier Liu He is very vocal in reiterating “we must respond to it”， outspokenly.

How much we textile players are to bear the cost of U.S. tariff surge has not been calculated as we need time to elaborate on the outcome of this tariff attack. On September 24 last year， when the United States put into effect the additional 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of the imported Chinese goods， we summed up 917 tariff lines of textile products in the range of HS Chapter 50 – 60， to arrive at a bit over $4 billion of Chinese textiles imported into U.S. market， 25 percent tariff rate out of $4 billion is just around $1 billion additional cost， which may be paid by manufacturers， importers， and ironically largely by consumers in real business operations. In contrast to Chinese textiles and apparel export worldwide for $276.73 billion in 2018， the effect is predictable and controllable if our textile industry strives to stay ahead of the curve in investing new technology and new model of business for sustainable growth. ITMA2019 is the right place for innovating the world of textile and sourcing the tools and roadmap for a sustainable future.

ZHAO Hong， Editor-in-Chief

June， 2019