Govt must expedite free trade talks to push exports: TEXPROCIL

Deepak Kumar | The Dollar Business

India’s cotton textiles industry has asked the government to expedite the free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the European Union, Australia and Canada so as to remove trade barriers and ensure access to greater markets for textile exporters.  “There is a scenario of tariff preference. They are looking at Canada, Australia and other countries we don’t have FTA with. There are other components involved in it. We are pushing for it and we expect these things to be taken up soon,” the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL’s) Executive Director Siddhartha Rajagopal told The Dollar Business. In August 2015, cotton textiles exports declined by 7.39% to $863.18 million as compared to $932.02 in August last year. Overall commodities exports also fell for the ninth straight month, by 20.66% to $21.26 billion in August 2015 as against $26.80 billion in August 2014, according to the government data. Rajagopal said that despite the slowdown prevailing in the global market, Indian industry is optimistic.  “If you look at the overall exports, it hasn’t gone down by a huge margin. Around April this year, the export fell by just about 2%. China is still a major market for India’s cotton textiles products. We are still exporting to china in decent quantity, but because the devaluation of yuan, our export revenue doesn’t look that great,” he said. Rajagopal attributed the decline in exports to the global economic slowdown, saying, “There is a fall in global demand. The US is the only market where our export has been stable. The EU’s economy has slowed down. There is a market fluctuation in China. The US market is not good enough to generate the global demand.” The industry urged the government to initiate dialogue with China and Turkey for reduction in the import duties imposed on Indian textiles. It also suggested the Centre to include cotton textiles under the 3% interest rate subvention scheme, release of funds under the TUF Scheme, and recalibrating the product/country matrix under the newly introduced Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).  

September 19, 2015 | 1:42pm IST.