America’s Fashion Industry Pushes Back: U.S. Reduces Imports from China in 2024

The U.S. buys more fashion, but not from China, before, even the trade war opened by Donald Trump. U.S. imports of finished fashion, textiles and leather goods reached a value of $132.442 billion in 2024, up 2.8% from the previous year. Despite the fact that the United States has again raised its fashion purchases abroad, it is gradually redefining its sourcing, in favor of alternative powers such as Vietnam or Bangladesh, but especially, against China, which has curbed its sales to the country.

Last year, fashion accounted for 4% of total U.S. purchases abroad, which stood at $3.26 trillion at the end of the year, according to data published by the U.S. International Trade Administration. In 2024, the power has returned to positive the evolution of its fashion purchases, after they suffered a fall of up to 22% in 2023.

Specifically, the United States imported fashion worth $128.864 billion that year, well below the €165.274 billion it imported in 2022. Despite the rise, the weight of imports of finished fashion, textiles and leather goods have progressively lost weight in recent years.

If in 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic, fashion copied 5.43% of U.S. purchases abroad, the figure already fell to around 4.7% in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the sector gained share again, to 5.1% of the total, which dropped to 4.2% in 2023.

The United States has increased its foreign fashion purchases by 2.8% in 2024

China is still the largest fashion supplier to the United States, although it has also slowed down its trade with the United States. The data refer to the full year, and despite the fact that Donald Trump did not assume the presidency of the country until the end of the year, the commercial reorganization of the country’s trade that is being implemented by the president already began to be sensed in 2024.

At the end of the year, U.S. imports from China of finished fashion alone stood at $20 billion, up 1.72% on the previous year, and far short of the rise in this figure historically, with increases of 7.2% in 2022 or 8.8% in 2021.

In contrast to the slowdown in imports from China, the case of Vietnam, the second largest supplier of fashion to the United States, stands out, increasing its sales to the country by 5.56% in 2024. The figure translates into the sale of finished fashion worth 15,112 million dollars. Bangladesh, for its part, exported fashion to the United States for another $7,3 billion, up 0.7%.

In the case of textile imports, China is once again in first place, with sales of up to $1,5 billion. The Asian giant increased exports of this type of products in 2024 by 14%, but despite the double-digit increase, this does not reach the 17.2% increase recorded by India, the second largest U.S. textile supplier.

India sold $1.104 billion worth of textiles to the United States, up from $942 million the previous year. The third position is held by Mexico, with sales of 882 million dollars in 2024, an increase of 9%.