The recently hiked additional tariff to 25 per cent by US on China can be a good opportunity for Indian textile industry as additional tariff hike covers textile chapters 50 and 60. Though the additional tariff hike does not include garments and made-ups segments which means that there will be no additional advantage for the exports of the same.
However, these chapters cover more than 10 product categories like cotton, silk, wool, knitted fabrics, special woven fabrics, coated and industrial fabrics, floor covering, other vegetable fibres, manmade filaments, etc. (see table for details).
The value of the given below textile products was approximately US $ 3.96 billion in 2018, which is only 2 per cent of US’s notified US $ 200 billion imports from China. Whereas, US’s total import of these textile products from India is approximately US $ 1.71 billion in 2018, which is 43 per cent of US’s imports from China. Out of the total textile products, cotton textiles account for the largest number of tariff lines (520 at 10 digit level). In terms of value, the most imported products belong to floor coverings, non-woven cordage and manmade filaments.
Sanjay K. Jain, Chairman, CITI (Confederation of Indian Textile Industry) is of the view, “The additional tariff hike provides an opportunity for the Indian textile industry to increase its exports to US, particularly for the products belonging to the categories; cotton textiles, floor coverings and manmade filaments.”
Summary of US’s Imports of Textile Products from China on which Additional Tariff is Increased from 10% to 25% | ||||
Chapter | Description | No. of Tariff Lines
at 10-Digit |
US’s Imports from China (US $ million) | US’s Imports from India (US $ million) |
2018 | 2018 | |||
50 | Silk | 34 | 23.17 | 11.15 |
51 | Wool | 109 | 24.69 | 3.36 |
52 | Cotton | 520 | 207.69 | 97.30 |
53 | Other Vegetable Fibres | 61 | 35.34 | 57.62 |
54 | Manmade Filaments | 269 | 614.26 | 193.58 |
55 | Manmade Staple Fibres | 388 | 392.68 | 113.69 |
56 | Non-wovens Cordage | 77 | 709.69 | 95.02 |
57 | Floor Coverings | 74 | 737.85 | 906.47 |
58 | Special Woven Fabrics | 107 | 216.94 | 37.28 |
59 | Coated and Industrial Fabrics | 75 | 610.58 | 115.62 |
60 | Knitted Fabrics | 97 | 386.09 | 75.97 |
Total | 1811 | 3959 | 1707 |
Source: Office of Textile and Apparel, US