FTA with EU to boost India’s textile, garment exports

The early implementation of India-EU free trade agreement (FTA), negotiations for which are currently in the final stage, will increase India’s textile and garment exports, according to experts.

The India-EU FTA, to be known as the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), proposes slashing and eventual removal of duties on about 90 percent of bilaterally traded goods during the next ten-year period.

The Indian textiles industry is in broad agreement with the Government over reduction and moving towards zero-duty on European imports as it is expected to enhance exports and thus benefit the domestic firms.

Mr. DK Nair, Secretary-General of the Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry (CITI) told fibre2fashion, “We have suggested the Government that we may not include any products from the textiles and clothing (T&C) sector in India's negative list in the BTIA, on condition that the EU also does not include any T&C products in their negative list.”

“We are also open to a zero-for-zero deal for T&C products from day one. As India exports more T&C products than it imports from West Europe, early trade liberalization with EU will help our exports,” Mr. Nair explains.

Elaborating further, he says, “There are countries that already have zero duty access for textile products in the EU through their GSP scheme and other bilateral agreements. This disadvantage that we are facing currently will be removed by getting zero duty access to EU for our T&C products.”

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