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Abstract
This paper estimates the determinants of the shares of various developing countries in total U.S. apparel imports. We make use of two new sources of data: new export tax-equivalent estimates of the QRs under the ATC and qualitative information from surveys of major exporting firms. The export tax-equivalents are estimated using license prices from nine developing countries. The firm data was collected from 14 major textile, clothing and trading companies located in Hong Kong but operating throughout Asia. They capture the importance of factors influencing sourcing decisions. While we find that the degree of restraint imposed by the quotas is an important influence in a supplier’s market share, other factors including production costs, tariffs, quality of infrastructure, and transport costs also play major roles.