The Indian apparel industry has welcomed India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and believes it will boost apparel exports as well as employment generation.
Welcoming the signing of the CEPA, Narendra Goenka, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said that it will further strengthen India’s dominant position in the UAE.
“With India supplying US $1,515 million of apparel to the UAE as against its total imports of US $3,517 million, Indian apparel exports contribute a decent share of 43 per cent. The trade pact would result in a drop of 5 per cent import duty for Indian apparels. This will further strengthen the dominant position of Indian apparels in the UAE,” he said.
The chairman highlighted that the Government has been taking several initiatives to boost exports from the country and generate employment.
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The CEPA is likely to generate additional demand for several apparel items from India. In the knitted garment segment, there will be a hike in exports of T-shirts, shirts, babies’ garments, trousers and briefs. In the woven garment segment, women’s dresses, tracksuits, babies’ garments, trousers, shorts, shawls, scarves and veils will get the maximum benefit.
However, in order to analyse the actual advantage India could possibly have from the CEPA,there will be various factors that would come into consideration.
“Not all products that are high on import demand in the UAE are core export strengths of India. The key factors that would determine the extent of benefit from CEPA are the import demand of specific RMG products in UAE, production strength/export capability of Indian companies in these products and acceptance of Indian products into UAE,” he said.
“Tracing the export chain, we find that our apparel exports to the UAE also cater to the apparel needs of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UK. The UAE is a large retail market with players across the value chain including big western fashion chains, wholesale buyers from North Africa and the Middle East,” he said.
Imports of RMG into UAE (Global versus India)
% Share of India versus competing countries in UAE apparel imports
All data: AEPC
