As fears over another U.S. economic downturn heats up, Asian exporters are bracing themselves for the worst. All eyes are on our leaders in Washington who passed a fiscal stimulus package yesterday that they hope will be the catalyst for change. Decreasing demand from the American market has already pushed many Asian suppliers to embrace reform in a variety of ways. […]

The dynamic nature of the apparel industry makes it difficult for anyone to predict what will happen next, but Just-Style.com managing editor, Leonie Barrie, identified eight key issues to be on the lookout for in 2008. Here are some of the topics raised in her article: 1. EU Monitoring of Chinese Exports – In late 2007 delegates from Brussels and Beijing […]

Thanks to growing demand from international markets a slew of Italian brands have been going public in hopes of raising both funds for expansion and brand awareness. After several failed attempts, Prada followed suit by announcing on Wednesday that it would go IPO sometime mid-June of 2008. Last year may have been a signal of things to come when the husband and wife […]

While browsing CNN.com earlier today, I came across a somewhat surprising headline, China’s Trade Surplus Soars. Given all the import horror stories from last year, I immediately assumed this was a typo, but my doubts were misplaced. China’s trade surplus did indeed rise to a record 50% in 2007 (47.7% to be exact). Although slightly […]

David Barboza, a Shanghai-based NYTimes correspondent, wrote an eye-opening piece in last week’s Business section about the continued plight of sweatshop workers in China. He describes how even big U.S. corporations like Wal-Mart and Disney, often herladed as paradigms of social compliance, face difficulties keeping track of their supply chains. In the article, Barboza shares […]