Govt urged to speed up FTAs to give boost to textile exports

Indian textile sector is at big disadvantage compared to Bangladesh and Vietnam as it does not have FTAs with U.S., Canada dn Europe. Least developed countries are exporting at zero duty while India’s exports are subject to 10 to 14 percent duty. Hence, the Textile Ministry has urged the government to expedite Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the U.S. and European Union to help double exports, said its Secretary Rashmi Verma.

Ms. Verma further added that it is on labour and wages cost that were are not able to compete with Bangladesh and Vietnam. As far as quality and branding is concern, they are on par with them. However, they want to have balanced duty structure. FTAs will give a big boost.

Currently, exports stand at Rs.2.5 lakh crore and the vision is to double it in the next 10 years. But there are few challenges that put India at competitive disadvantage, Ms. Verma said.

According to Union Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Alok Kumar, they are hopeful of achieving the target as most of the export happens in the last four-five months. During the current fiscal, they might be one of the few sectors to hit the target.

The target for 2015-16 is pegged at $47.5 billion.