There are no particular issues raised by interviewees concerning trade and duty matters for silk and the product is seen as regular and straightforward to deal with by importers. "If it is hand woven, there is a quota and it comes in duty free. If it is not hand woven there is a duty of 6.9%.” (James Hare, UK) However, one interviewee in the UK was very concerned about what they considered to be illegal and unethical practices by Chinese traders operating in Europe which contributed to the loss of valuable re-export market to mainland Europe from the UK.
4.4 Attitude toward silk fabric and final products with organic or natural textile certification The knowledge of natural/ organic textile certification is highly variable among silk stakeholders. Some have knowledge about this certification [e.g. GOTS] whilst many people have not known it before. In general GOTS is not so relevant to daily business and it is perceived more as a marketing tool than a real requirement, or trend. “It [organic standard] may have a ‘foot in the door’ marketing-wise, but don’t think at the moment it is relevant to be perfectly honest.” (James Hare, UK) “I have never heard of GOTS in 20 years of buying the silk. If it were relevant I should have heard of it.” (Bennetts Silk, UK) Similarly, nobody knows or considers relevant Peacock silk from Thailand. Peacock standard is not known by consumers and by the majority of operators of silk sector and is not clearly associated to Thailand. A strong communication strategy has to be planned to reach results in EU in term of increased knowledge and demand by consumers. However costs benefits ratio has to be carefully considered, especially in consideration of potential volumes that Thailand is exporting and it would be willing to export to EU and the position of competitors (e.g. China, India, and Vietnam). All respondents agreed that this standard has no impact on the silk business at all due to the economic recession situation. Today, the price of silk is dramatically increasing and the trend is to increase more; thus, the organic standard, which
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