With US their key market, worried apparel exporters seek Govt help
'We request immediate government intervention to offset this huge setback. Exporters have their back against the wall and will have to sell below cost to keep their factories running and avoid mass layoffs,' Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), said in a statement.
The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), New Delhi based-industry chambers of the textile and clothing sector, also said that the latest US tariff announcement has added to the challenges that India's textile and apparel exporters were already grappling with.
'The latest US tariff announcement, following which the tariff rates have been substantially reduced for many countries including Bangladesh, against whom we are competing for a larger share of the US market, will compound the difficulties for India's textile and apparel exporters as we will be handicapped by a severe duty disadvantage,' CITI Chairman Rakesh Mehra said.
Seeking government intervention for easier availability of raw materials, CITI said while the tariff rate for India has been set at 25 per cent, the rate for competing countries such as Bangladesh is 20 per cent, Indonesia and Cambodia are 19 per cent each and Vietnam is 20 per cent.
While China continues to be the top exporter of textile and apparel items in the US, its market share has come down from 27.4 per cent in 2020 to 21.9 per cent in 2024. However, India's market share has been rising.
The US is a key market for Indian Ready-Made Garments (RMG) exports; its share in India's total garment exports in 2024 stood at 33 per cent, AEPC said. India's presence in the US garment import market increased from 4.5 per cent in 2020 to 5.8 per cent in 2024. India ranks fourth among the top RMG exporters to the US, it said.
'Top three most exported products by India to US: cotton T-shirts (9.71 per cent); women's or girls' dresses of cotton (6.52 per cent); babies' garments of cotton (5.46 per cent), etc. The top three exports of India to the US hold 10, 36, and 20 per cent share, respectively, in the US total imports of these products globally,' the export promotion council said.
The Ministry of Textiles on Friday said that the overall exports from the sectors including handicrafts has grown 5 per cent during FY25, at $37.7 billion, compared to $35.8 billion during the previous financial year. The Ministry also said that it has implemented the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) to provide support for setting up textile parks with world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure in textile hubs across the country.
The government has finalised setting up of PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM-MITRA) parks at seven sites – Tamil Nadu (Virudhnagar), Telangana (Warangal), Gujarat (Navasari), Karnataka (Kalaburagi), Madhya Pradesh (Dhar), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow) and Maharashtra (Amravati) with an outlay of Rs 4,445 crore for a period of seven years up to 2027-28.
While the in-person India-US trade negotiations are expected to continue after the second half of August, the deal is stuck over sensitive sectors such as agriculture and automobiles. The Indian Express had reported last week that India is unlikely to agree to the US demands to accept genetically modified (GM) agricultural products such as corn and soya.
This assumes significance as agriculture remains one of the contentious issues between the two countries, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has previously flagged restrictions on its GM products by countries as discriminatory.
Ravi Dutta Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, covering policy issues related to trade, commerce, and banking. He has over five years of experience and has previously worked with Mint, CNBC-TV18, and other news outlets. ... Read More
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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is also expected to visit Moscow later this month. As tensions between India and the US increase over the purchase of Russian oil, we examine the India-Russia partnership and why it remains significant for New Delhi. Doval's visit to Moscow On Tuesday (August 5), NSA Doval arrived in Russia for a high-level visit to strengthen ties between the two nations. According to reports, Doval will hold closed-door meetings with senior Russian officials to discuss regional stability, counterterrorism cooperation, and energy security. An Economic Times report said that India is looking to purchase additional S-400 defence systems which contributed to India's success in Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. There are also rumours that India is exploring purchase of Su-57 fighter jets from Russia. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is in Moscow on a high-level visit to strengthen ties between India and Russia. File image/PTI According to Russian media outlet TASS, the visit is part of a planned schedule and will focus on defence cooperation between India and Russia. 'The current escalation of the geopolitical situation will also be discussed. Apart from that the topics will include such pressing matters as supplies of Russian oil [to India],' the source said. Trump's threats to India on Russian oil Notably, Doval's visit comes amid criticisms and threats from US President Donald Trump over the issue of Russian oil. On Tuesday, in his latest attack, he told CNBC in an interview, 'India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don't do business with them. So we settled on 25 per cent but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they're buying Russian oil.' These remarks by the American leader came a day after he said that he would 'substantially' raise US tariffs on India and had accused New Delhi of buying oil from Russia and selling it for profits. In fact, over the past few days, the US president and members of his administration have been highly critical of India's purchase of Russian oil. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as well his Deputy White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, have questioned India's purchase of Russian oil with the former stating that it was a 'point of irritation' in the ties between the two nations, while Miller accused India of financing Russia's war against Ukraine. However, India has stood its ground with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stating that its purchase of Russian oil was a 'necessity' and called out US and Europe for singling it out. The MEA in a statement said that the nations criticising India are themselves 'indulging in trade with Russia' even when 'such trade is not even a vital compulsion'. 'Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy, but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment,' read an official statement. India further said that it would take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD History of India-Russia ties India's ties with Russia go way beyond just the oil trade. The two countries established diplomatic relations in April 1947 — even before India attained independence — and since then the two nations have shared extremely close ties. 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