Underestimation of clothing imports in Argentina. New methodology for sectoral studies

Abstract

This paper proposes a new methodology to examine the role of foreign trade in sectoral studies, based on a proper recalculation of the share of imports in clothing market and an estimate of its effects on national production through the chenery (1979) decomposition.
Among main results obtained it is highlighted that: i) clothing imports from shopping tourism are even higher than those included in custom records; ii) the
true import penetration in the clothing market doubles that reported in official figures and existing sectorial studies; iii) since 2015, the share of imports in this market accelerates, reaching the historical peak of 50,7% in 2018; and iv) the fall of national production (and employment) between late 2015 and 2018 is mostly explained (e.g. 66%) by the import growth dynamics.