Last month, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Britain’s Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch met ahead of the sixth round of FTA negotiations after a hiatus of more than four months. They instructed negotiators not to get hung up on nuanced issues, but to work out their differences and move forward.
The Indian textile industry is very keen to reach a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK. The industry hopes duty-free access to a large garment market will help it become more competitive with neighboring Bangladesh. India and the UK have said they are working towards an early conclusion of the FTA negotiations.
“The proposed trade deal with the UK is very important for the Indian industry as the UK is a large market and the Indian textile industry has duty-free access to important markets. It will provide the industry with a needed boost. will.” Sanjay Jain, Managing Director of TT Limited and former Chairman of the Federation of Indian Textile Industries (CITI), told Fiber2Fashion: He expects a trade deal to be signed in the first half of 2023.
Indian industry expects the FTA to provide a level playing field with Bangladesh. Bangladesh has tax-free access to the UK due to preferential treatment based on its Least Developed Country (LDC) status. Indian apparel exports to the UK are currently subject to a tariff of around 10%.
K Vel Krishna, Managing Partner at Deiveegam Dyersduring a session at the CII’s recent Texcon conference in New Delhi, said, “The proposed FTA with the UK is expected to be a landmark development as it can offer Indian exporters a better edge. They will be able to offer competitive prices to UK buyers and they will also be able to access the market duty-free, similar to Bangladeshi exporters.”
Raja M Shanmugham, former president of the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA), told Fiber2Fashion:“In this age of universal markets, an FTA is a very important trade deal between trading nations. A similar trade deal with Europe will also follow.” He said a speedy completion of FTA negotiations with all future trading nations would also help the Indian economy.
South Indian Mills Association (SIMA) Executive Director K Selvaraju told Fiber2Fashion: “The proposed trade deal with the UK is expected to open the door to important markets. However, the Indian government needs to ensure the security of the raw material.Currently, Indian cotton is more expensive than ICE cotton, which paralyzes the competitiveness of Indian exporters. I have.”
According to trade data, India is the fifth largest garment supplier to the UK, while Bangladesh is the second.according to Fiber2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro, The UK will import $20.889 billion worth of clothing in 2021. With her $3.019 billion clothing supply, Bangladesh accounted for her 14.45% of Britain’s total clothing imports. China’s share was her 21.57%. Turkiye and Italy also had a share above India’s 5.24% ($1.094 billion) in 2021. Once the FTA is implemented, India can expect to improve its share of the UK market.
Fiber2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
