COPENHAGEN — In a context of mounting challenges to global free trade, Danish finance minister Kristian Jensen opened Copenhagen Fashion Week with a speech defending the globalized nature of the country’s apparel industry.
“Trade is unfairly being demonized,” Jensen said at an opening lunch on Tuesday that brought together designers and executives with buyers and press. “Trade barriers are what make people poorer, not globalization.”
Jensen pointed out the small-town seamstresses from his childhood had been replaced with a thriving design industry, while “globalization has given people all over the world the chance to participate.”
Just days after President Donald Trump’s administration removed the U.S. from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership and prepared to do the same with the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union, the Nordic region’s biggest fashion week is shining a spotlight on a country and industry that has been transformed by globalization, and whose business leaders and center-right government show little interest in turning back.
The country of just over 5 million people exports roughly $96 billion in goods and services each year, including almost $4 billion in fashion, according to Dansk Fashion and Textile, a trade association. In contrast with other European markets like France and Italy, which have maintained significant production facilities for
Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Read More…