China and India may at least triple their individual shares in the US clothing market after textile import quotas are abolished worldwide next year. 

The prediction is made by a World Trade Organization discussion paper on the impact of the end of a 40-year-old regime of textile quotas, according to a report by China Radio International. 

The paper claims that China's share of the US clothing market is set to skyrocket from 16 percent to 50 percent, while India's share is likely to surge from four percent to 15 percent.

The huge gains would largely come at the expense of smaller exporters like Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Latin America and the European Union, which currently have market shares in the single digits or low teens.

A similar pattern is also likely to be repeated in the European Union's clothing and textiles markets, where China is expected to expand to a 29 percent market share in clothing, from current 18 percent.

(CRI August 12, 2004)