US has treaties with a number of countries/regions around the world which enables them to export duty free or on concessional duties to USA. Regional agreements like NAFTA, AGOA, West Bank & QIZs , DR-CAFTA, Jordan- US, Andean Act etc are some of the treaties which enable such preferential trade. So , how do these trade agreements promote the import of jeans into US. Do the imports under these agreements enable these regions to export significant number of jeans to US? Are their numbers growing or reducing ? How are the prices from these regions as compared to non-preferred regions which export to the US? What is the % of exports under special programmes as compared to non-prefered regions ? Do these regions also export to US denim apparel which do not get covered under the regional pact benefits ?
We will explore the answers to above mentioned questions related to export of women’s jeans under Special Import programmes for 2012 and 2013 . The information can be downloaded in an excel sheet and the analysis of the same is given .
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Exports of Women’s Jeans to US under Special Programmes vs Without programmes
From the data in the attached sheet, we can see that about 230 million pcs of women’s jeans were imported into the US in 2012. Out of these about 16.4% of jeans are exported under special programmes and balance from regions which are not covered under any special programmes. However, when we compare the period Jan-Oct 2013 vs Jan-Oct 2012, we find that the % of share of exports under special programmes has fallen by about 2% to 14.4%. The major fall has been from the AGOA region (-28%)while the West Bank & QIZ regions experienced an increase of about 11% in their exports of women jeans to US in 2013. Colombia also experienced an increase under special programmes though their overall quantities are quite low.
When we come to pricing , we find that the prices from Special programme areas average $9.22 per piece in 2012 while the prices have increased to $9.77 in 2013 , showing an increase of about 5% . Majority of this increase comes from NAFTA region (5.25%) and AGOA (3.11%) . Colombia shows a large increase but , again, these are based on small quantities. The prices from other regions not under special programmes show an increase of about 1.55%.
Top four regions – The top region in terms of exports of women’s jeans to US is , predictably , NAFTA. With about 11million women jeans exported in 2012 to US , it has the highest numbers followed closely by the AGOA region at about 9 million jeans. The West Bank, Gaza &QIZs (including Egypt) follows closely at about 8 million jeans . At fourth number stands Jordan under the Jordan US pact.
However, when we look at quantities , we find that the quantities of women jeans exported under the Special programmes from various regions to the US is not very high. However, the quantities of men’s jeans exported from some of these regions like Mexico is much higher. We will explore that in next report.
For the moment , we will also check if the all exports from a region are only done under the special programmes or also without such programmes. We will take the example of Mexico. Mexico is the main exporting country to US under NAFTA (Canada is negligible)  Under this agreement, Mexico is able to use the US fabric and some other origins for export of garments duty free to US. However are all its exports of women Jeans under the NAFTA agreement or also as normal exports which does not entails these exports the preferential benefits. Lets look at the table below :
Exports of women jeans from Mexico (2012-2013)
| Category | 2012 | 2012 (Jan- Oct) | 2013 (Jan-Oct) |
| Total | 11.8 million pcs | 9.88 million pcs | 9.3 million pcs |
| Under NAFTA | 10.8 million pcs | 8.9 million pcs | 8.7 million pcs |
| Without NAFTA | 1 million pcs | 1 million pcs approx | 0.6 million pcs approx |
So, from the table above we find that Mexico has been exporting about 10% of women jeans which are not covered under NAFTA. In 2013 , this number fell to about 7%. This indicates that buyers in US also buy from the special zones apparel which are sometimes not covered by the regional pacts and their benefits.
Download the report special import programs – womem jeans imports jan to oct 2013
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