No doubt we all share the view that the textile and clothing industries have seen some difficult times over the last two to three years, not only in importing countries in North America and Western Europe and in Japan but in many developing and newly industrialised countries. Moreover, behind the hardships a stream of major but apparently unrelated events have served to knock the industry off-course. Back in early 2001, the US recession, albeit short-lived, led to cutbacks in purchases of textiles and apparel from a number of Asian exporting countries. Moreover the recession hit at a time when those countries were recovering from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, which had caused so much disruption to the region's economies and, in Indonesia, led to major dislocations to industry in general, to the textile and clothing industry in particular, and to the country's social stability. Exports from many of the major supplying countries were down or growth was sharply curtailed. The main exception was China.
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