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Ivan Kenneally
Jordans Textile & Apparel Imports Grow 12.4%; Small but
Rapidly Expanding Industry
Jordans importation of textiles and apparel keeps robustly improving, expanding 12.43% to $202 million in the first
two months of 2014.
According to the Jordanian Department of Statistics, Jordans apparel and textile imports for February 2014 were
valued at $94 million. In 2013, the countrys imports jumped 18.12% to $1.26 billion, compared to $1.07 billion the
year before.
Japan is one of Jordans key destinations for its textile and garment exportsin 2013, exports to Japan increased
9.87% to $1.22 billion, compared to $1.11 billion in 2012.
While Jordans textile and apparel industry is small by global standards, it still counts as one of the countrys most
important business sectors, accounting for thirty percent of all exports and employing approximately 40,000 workers,
according to the Jordanian Society for the Export of Clothes and Textiles. The World Bank reports that Jordan has a
population of about 6.5 million and a labor force of 1.8 million.
Jordans textile and apparel industry has been buoyed by a series of free trade agreements with United States,
European Union, European Free Trade Association, the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, Morocco, Turkey, Singapore
and Canada. Jordans access to the U.S. market has been significantly expanded as a result of two free trade
agreements in particular: the Jordan-United States FTA and the Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) agreement.
The QIZ agreement went into effect in 1996 and permits Jordanian products made in specially designated areas and
containing Israeli inputs to enter the United States duty-free and quota-free. Together, the two agreements have
contributed to an increase in Jordans apparel and textile exports to the United States from approximately $50 million
per year in 1999 to $1 billion in 2010, according to a MENA Knowledge and Learning report published by the World
Bank in February 2012. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Jordan is the U.S.s sixty-
eighth largest good trading partner with $3.3 billion in total goods during 2013. Jordans exports in 2013 to the U.S.
totaled $1.2 billion and imports reached $2.1 billion.
The Jordanian textile and apparel industry manufactures for numerous Western retailers and brands including the
Gap, J.C. Penney, Levi Strauss & Co., Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Walmart, Kmart, Limited, Sears,
Columbia, New York Laundry and Victorias Secret.
Like Indonesia and Pakistan, Jordans textile and apparel industry has suffered from chronic energy shortages. A
rapidly depleting supply of natural gas, in conjunction with elevated oil prices, has forced Jordan to import more fuel
for the sake of electricity generation, a burden on the countrys economic growth.
Jordan, like Cambodia and Bangladesh, has also been roiled by labor strikes demanding higher wages, better
working conditions and improved access to health insurance. Starting in 2008, Jordan partnered with the
International Labour Organization and the World Banks International Finance Corporation to form Better Work
Jordan, an initiative that targets superior compliance for labor standards in the apparel industry.