Indian textile industry urges govt to move forward with FTAs

The Indian textile industry representative in their presentation to the Union Government have urged to move forward with the trade agreements proposed with Russia and European Union and also address some of the bottlenecks that the textile and clothing industry is presently facing.

Also demanded that the norms should be modified, stipulating use of yarn and fabric of Indian origin as a pre-condition to allow duty free import of garments from Bangladesh. Since duty free import of garments is permitted in India from Bangladesh, a lot of Chinese fabric also comes into India through Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh imposes high duties on import of fabric from India.

Brazil imported textile and apparel items worth 7 billion dollars in 2013-2014 and of the 2.5 billion dollars worth apparel items it imported, just 142 million dollar worth garments were from India. Textile items should be included under the existing India-Mercosr preferential trade agreement.

Russia is in discussion with Vietnam and India for a free trade agreement. Brazil and Russia are two markets that India must tap apart from the traditional markets – European Union, the U.S. and Japan. European Union offers zero duty market access to Pakistan, Bangladesh and less developed countries. Hence, India should conclude the free trade agreement with EU soon.

Vietnam and Bangladesh have overtaken India in apparel exports though they do not have manufacturing facilities for the raw materials.

Differential taxation for cotton and man made fibre, need for fibre policy, high energy costs and too many regulations are some of the factors slowing down the India’s textile industry.

These were among the demands in the presentations made recently to Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a meeting organised by the Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills’ Association, South India Hosiery Manufacturers’ Association, Karur Exporters’ Association, Erode Textile and Garment Exporters’ Association, Tamil Nadu Autolooms Cloth Manufacturers Association, Texpreneurs Forum and Andhra Pradesh Spinning Mills’ Association.