9th March 2024, New Delhi: Shri Rakesh Mehra, the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), commended the government on signing the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement with the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
“The Indian textile industry had been requesting the negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs) with major textile and apparel markets on a regular basis in order to have an even playing field against our competitors. The textile industry is pleased to report that India has recently signed a number of trade agreements, including the India-Australia ECTA and the India-UAE CEPA, under the direction of the Hon. Union Minister of Commerce & Industries, Shri Piyush Goyal. According to Shri Mehra, the impending India-EFTA agreement will further boost the expansion of the Indian textile industry, particularly in terms of vital inputs, technological advancements, and chances for product development.
He went on to say that although the EFTA members—Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland—represent a significant trading bloc for the Indian textile industry, CITI has been pleading with the government to fast-track the signing of an FTA with Switzerland because the two countries complement each other’s needs in the T&A arena. India imports machinery and technology from Switzerland, and Switzerland offers to buy raw materials and intermediate products that can be transformed into high-quality and sustainable final goods.
In this context, CITI and Swiss Textiles, one of the significant national associations of trade and investment in Switzerland, inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in November 2023 with the goal of advancing bilateral trade and investment as well as participating in more knowledge-sharing and capacity-building B2B interactions that are product-specific.
