Fashion and Decoration

This concept includes the following sectors: textile and ready-made clothing; leather and footwear; jewelry and gift articles; decorative articles and furniture. These industries seek to develop Mexico’s image as a country that creates design and fashion. Since 2002, our country’s production plants have specialized in the make-up of products with greater added value, flexible productions and shorter delivery times, which has contributed to registering a surplus in the garment trade balance. Mexico has numerous strengths in the textile and garment chain, such as taking advantage of the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA-DR), through the implementation of the Accumulation of Origin. Furthermore, our country has qualified labor, a strategic location with respect to the United States, implementation of Trade Agreements with Europe and Japan, and zero tariff with the United States and Canada for exports to the NAFTA region. These trade opportunities have made it possible for the Mexican textile industry to be the fifth supplier to North America.

Moreover, Mexico is the world’s third silver producer and its exports in silver jewelry in 2007 amounted to 100 million dollars. There are approximately 12,000 gift and jewelry companies in the country, of which 12 percent are exporters. In the case of the leather and footwear industries, more than 500 million dollars were exported. The main destination for both industries’ exports is the United States.

However, China and Hong Kong are markets in constant growth for the leather industry.

Meanwhile, the footwear industry is diversifying toward Japan and Europe. The manufacture of decorative articles is widespread in our country; its strengths are design and the use of new materials. On the other hand, the furniture industry is specializing increasingly toward niches such as hospitality, but wooden furniture continues to take an important place in exports to the United States and Canada. In 2008, 3.7 billion dollars were exported in decorative articles and furniture.