To boost export of apparel and textiles, India is set to announce WTO compliant measures. The aim is to bring its exporters to a level playing field with Bangladesh and Vietnam exporters.
Past year, dispute settlement consultations with the government of India were requested by the US at WTO to challenge export subsidy measure that benefit India exporters in a range of industries which include apparel and textile.
The challenged programs included merchandise exports from India scheme.
The sector specific schemes and export oriented unit schemes including electronics hardware technology parks scheme, the export promotion capital goods scheme, special economic zones and a duty free import for exporters program.
Later on, the move was back by eleven major economies including Brazil, EU, China, Japan and Canada who have agreed the schemes violate the WTO’s fair trade law.
Mr Raghvendra Singh, textile secretary told, “The ministry, along with export promotion councils, is now firming up schemes for the apparel sector which are WTO compliant.
The government will start trend forecasting for the textile sector this month, using commercial intelligence to determine what could be on trend in the near future as the country gears up to influence global fashion trends.”
He also pointed out that for India it was difficult to compete with countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh on exports of apparel because of the access they have to FTA with areas such as US and EU.
He said, “The ministry has over the past few months been working with the ministry of commerce and industry and revenue to deal with WTO compliance issues.
These things will obviously be added incentives for the exporter which will allow them to compete with the EU and other countries also.”
