Ludhiana
The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement between India and Australia, which came into effect on December 29, 2022. The two nations’ business relations as well as the full range of goods and services are set to profit from this agreement, which is the first trade agreement between India and a developed nation in recent memory.
Shri Sanjay Garg , President NITMA ,expressed his gratitude to the Honorable PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji and Honorable Minister for Commerce & industry & Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal Ji for the historic accomplishment. Shri Garg claimed that this agreement will have a significant positive impact on the extremely labor-intensive textile and apparel industry. The cotton textiles value chain in the country, which has begun to experience a shortage of high-quality cotton as a result of the increased demand, will benefit from allowing the import of 51.000 MT of duty-free cotton from January 2023 and 419 MT of duty-free cotton from 29 December to 31 December 2022 from Australia, he added.
According to Shri Garg, the trade agreements with the UAE and Mauritius have already begun to provide better results, while the agreement with Australia will give various Indian textile products, particularly ready-to-wear clothing and home textiles, zero-duty market access. As the bilateral agreement is anticipated to reach USD 45 to USD 50 billion in trade in the next five years as opposed to the existing level of USD 25 billion, Shri Garg also stated that the treaty would tremendously benefit to bridge the trade deficit of roughly USD 8.5 billion with Australia.
According to the president NITMA , the removal of the 10% tariff barrier for exporting to Australia as well as the 11.0% import charge on cotton will increase India’s textile and apparel industry’s competitiveness on the world market. In a space of five to six years, he thought that expeditious FTA discussions with Canada, the United Kingdom, and a few other nations would allow India to reach its target exports of USD 100 billion and the USD 350 billion total market size for textiles. He claimed that the programme has provided the country’s textile and apparel sector, which is now experiencing a downturn due to the global recession and slowing economy, a great morale boost.
