Dear readers

Happy New Year！

The year of 2019 sets in， followed by the Chinese New Year that comes a bit late to fall on the 5th of February in a dogto-pig shift by the Zodiac sign according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar， marking the advent of the Spring as the start of a new year， a very poetic， romantic and optimistic hallmark of the year when the frozen wintertime is weathered through. This traditional legacy of celebrating new year is inherited by virtue of a long-lasting jubilant ritual in family revelry known as “ Spring Festival”.

The Year of the Pig in 2019 Horoscope is a good luck， as is best wished in new-year greetings and prayers. On the flip side， Good wishes and prayerful aspirations always stand still if one is too much submerged in “dreaming” a good thing to come without working diligently to materialize this spirituality. Would these good wishes for good luck to textile businesses be turned into materiality in the new year？ As we move into 2019， the growing uncertainty comes along for the fact that many business leaders， whom we met these past weeks， are laden with anxiety over the difficulties that they anticipate in business because new orders are not so many as they have expected， which is quite a different case seen before. The trade wrangle between China and the U.S.A. has its acute and chronic effect on those textile players who operate for U.S. market. The new round of bilateral trade talks at Deputy-Ministerial level between the two economic giants is set to begin on Jan.7-8， only one day away from the date when I am writing this letter， what will come out is yet to know， but we remain confident with reserved optimism to hope for the better， because both sides have stated that the New Year talk is focused on materializing the agreement that was reached on the bilateral presidential talks at G20 Summit Meeting. And sure enough， U.S. side does not impose additional tariff rate up to 25% on the $100 billion worth of goods originated from China into the United States on January 1st，2019 as it had threatened to do so last year. In return， China promised to import more goods from the No.1 economic power to mitigate the deficit impact that hovers over a long period of time in merchandize trade between the two countries.

U.S. Department of Commerce is the dominant actor in playing its role to protect American trade and security interests， the Secretary Wilbur Ross is an eloquent speaker at various international and domestic meetings， forums and conferences where China is a frequent word being named and used as a trade adversary in his speeches. To our na？ve knowledge， it has not occurred when the Commerce Department Secretary summarizes its annual accomplishments， which is released by its public briefing entitled “ U.S. Secretary of Commerce Concludes Successful 2018”. Instead of being hardline， scathing remarks， and rallying cry to stoke flame against China， he goes on with his accomplishment report in a rarely-seen low tone. In a paragraph subtitled “ Economic and National Security： Protecting Growth and Preventing Disaster”， he just mentioned ZTE to have been imposed $1.7 billion civil penalty， the largest backlash ever done to a single company， without singling out the country of origin. Speaking of the “great job” done by the International Trade Administration， he proudly appreciated ITA for being diligently working on new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations， initiating 137 new trade cases， 300 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous Administration. In this very important accomplishment sector， he does not mention China at all， although we know there are a good number of AD/CVD cases initiated on China.

Would it be a sign of change for good luck to the New Year？ Let us prepare for the worst， but hope for the best， an old saying that makes sense.

ZHAO Hong Editor-in-Chief

January， 2019