Textile sector needs to work hard for sizable share post Ind-Aus ECTA

India exported apparel worth $254.267 million and home textiles worth $217.684 million to Australia in the first ten months of 2022. On the other hand, India imported cotton (HS Code 5201) worth $255.593 million from Australia, bringing the total trade to $727 million for the period under review. The total trade is unlikely to cross the $1 billion mark for 2022. In 2021, India exported apparel worth $273.552 million and home textiles worth $263.134 million to Australia, while cotton imports amounted to $66.011 million in the same period, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro. 

Australia was the second largest supplier of cotton to India with 18.55 per cent share in the latter’s total imports of $1,377.810 million during January-October 2022. Cotton imports from Australia remained volatile in the previous years because of price dynamics. The cotton imports were at merely $6.352 million in 2020 and $33.068 million in 2019, as per TexPro. 

Australia was the tenth largest market for India’s apparel exports with shipment worth $254.267 million during January-October 2022, which was just 1.81 per cent of India’s total exports of $14.039 billion in the same period. However, the shipment of home textiles to Australia was slightly better in terms of its share in the total exports. India had exported home textiles worth $6.505 billion, out of which the shipment to Australia grabbed a share of 3.35 per cent ($217.684 million) in the same period, making Australia the fifth largest market for India’s home textiles. 

The data shows that textile sector needs to work harder to tap the opportunities offered by the ECTA. After the implementation of the deal on December 29, 2022, T Rajkumar, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry commented, “It will help boost textile and apparel exports. The FTA is likely to provide a big relief to Indian textile exporters, who had to pay about 10 per cent customs duty in countries like Australia, Canada, and the UK. The significance of the deal is shown by the comments from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and textile minister Piyush Goyal. PM Modi described the operationalisation of the agreement as a ‘watershed’ moment and will unlock the enormous potential of our trade and economic ties and boost businesses on both sides.” 

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)