A delegation of Tamil Nadu based textile entrepreneurs, led by Prabhu Damodaran, secretary of Texpreneurs Forum during their meeting with the Union Minister of State for Textiles S.K. Gangwar on Wednesday expressed the need to diversify the exports from United States and European Union market to sustain competitive in the apparel production sector.

The delegation also drew attention on the need for policy alterations to help expand exports of textile products to emerging market.

Prabhu Damodaran said that there is a need to concentrate on markets like Brazil and Russia. As Brazil imports apparels worth $ 2.5 billion a year of which India’s contribution is just $ 142 million, while Russia’s apparel imports stands $ 7.5 billion with India’s share at just $ 248 million.

To facilitate expansion of exports to countries like Brazil and other Latin American countries, the entrepreneurs reiterated the need for inclusion of textile items too under the existing India-MERCOSUR pact so that the import duties at the consumer end would come down.

Presently, MERCOSUR union, a trade block comprising countries like Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay, levies import duties on textile items in the range of 24 to 35 per cent. To bring improvement in trade with Russia, the textile exporters has urged for speedy signing of Free Trade Agreement.

Regarding the possible threat looming large for domestic yarn/fabric exporters following the United States’ pressure on Vietnam to source yarn and fabrics only from the 12 countries that signed Transpacific Trade Pact in which India is not a member, the delegation members have requested the Government to put pressure on United States to relax the yarn forward rule for now.

A well-conceived trade pact can open up many new opportunities for Indian textile exporters