In the WTO subsidies committee meetings, the WTO member countries, in particular the US supported by European Union, Turkey, Japan and others have asked India to phase out of export subsidies on textiles and the apparel sectors, Parliament was informed today.

As per the WTO data for 2006 and 2007, India has crossed the export competitiveness limit (exports reaching 3.25 percent of the world trade) consecutively for two years in these sectors, this was informed by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Sitharaman added as the new Foreign Trade Policy is still under consideration, the government has not taken any decision on the phasing out of subsidies.

The sops that will have to be phased out include the popular Focus Product and Focus Market schemes under which exports to targeted markets are incentivised, the EPCG scheme and the interest subvention scheme for export credit.

As per statistics compiled by the WTO, India’s share in world trade for textile and clothing was 4.66 per cent in 2013 with exports worth $37 billion. Textile and clothing exports contribute more than 10 per cent to India’s export basket