<span>STORY: As wedding dress designer Valentina Schuchner puts the finishing touches on her bridal collection for Buenos Aires Fashion Week, she says the mood isn’t celebratory.</span><span>“Emotionally speaking, I think the environment is a little strange. Everyone is a little sadder, more stressed. Obviously I’m generalizing, but you hear that it’s harder to make ends meet and a lot of brands are closing.”</span><span>Argentina’s textile and garment industry is facing one of its worst crises in years as ultra-cheap imports, many from fast fashion platforms in China, flood the market.</span><span>President Javier Milei has made market opening one of his goals, aiming to liberalize trade, increase competition and reduce prices.</span><span>Last year his government reduced tariffs on clothing and shoes from 35% to 20%.</span><span>Rules on cross-border e-commerce orders have also been relaxed, and the duty-free threshold for courier shipments has been increased to $400 in 2024.</span><span>Milei’s policies helped curb inflation, stabilize prices, and increase economic activity in some industries, such as agriculture.</span><span>But coupled with cheaper imports, domestic industries such as textiles are feeling the pinch.</span><span>David Kim, CEO of the family-run Amesud textile factory just outside Buenos Aires, said the factory was operating at only 30% capacity.</span><span>“The government wants us to compete. We have no problem competing, but we don’t need them to impose taxes, labor costs and union fees that other countries don’t have.”</span><span>A spokesman for Milei’s trade ministry declined to comment.</span><span>Door-to-door imports from other countries shipped directly to consumers’ homes nearly quadrupled last year, Argentina’s main clothing industry trade group said. </span><span>China particularly benefited from this situation.</span><span>Industry group Fundacion Pro Tejer said China’s share of textile and clothing imports rose from about 55 percent in 2022 to 70 percent in 2025, mainly due to the influence of Shein and Temu.</span><span>Argentina’s textile industry, meanwhile, has shed 16% of its workforce since 2023, falling from around 121,000 employees to 102,000 at the end of last year, according to industry data published in February.</span><span>Kim said his company has invested $10 million in imported machinery over the past decade to meet the demands of customers including Nike, Puma and local children’s clothing brand Mimo & Co.</span><span>However, currently most of the equipment is sitting idle.</span><span>“We’ve had many crises in this country, but this is the worst crisis in our history. Not only is it the worst in terms of money, it’s also the crisis we’ve had to leave for the longest time and the most people we’ve had to leave.”</span>
