The Ministry of Textiles (MoT) is keen to get apparel and made-ups included in the early harvest programme being worked out between India and the UK as a precursor to a full-fledged Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
It is pertinent to mention here that apparel exporters of Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan have a tariff advantage of about 10-11 per cent because of the special schemes they qualify for.
If India and the UK agree on tariff cuts, it would increase the competitiveness of Indian exporters tremendously.
A report of the leading business daily, BusinessLine, quoted Government officials that MoT has conveyed to the Commerce Ministry that it should focus on getting apparel included in the early harvest programme being negotiated with the UK. There is a huge opportunity to be reaped for apparel industry in the UK market. On the other hand, India’s import of textile items from the UK is very low and the local industry does not feel threatened if duties are lowered on India side as well.
UK is a very potential market for Indian apparel exporters as official data says that the total import of apparel in the UK in 2019 was US $24.9 billion, of which India’s share was just US $1.4 billion, while Bangladesh’s share was at US $3.6 billion.