• Friday, March 29, 2024

Business

High tariffs in EU, UK affecting India’s exports: Modi government

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (Photo by MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

HIGH tariffs faced by domestic exporters in the European Union and the United Kingdom compared to zero-duty access given by these countries to nations like Bangladesh and Cambodia are hurting India’s exports performance, the Narendra Modi government told the Indian parliament on Friday (30).

India’s textiles exports in 2020 stood at $29.61 billion while shipments of Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia were at $37.95 billion, $37.10 billion and $7.77 billion, respectively.

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‘Bangladesh, Cambodia get zero-duty access’

“High tariffs faced by Indian exporters in key markets such as the EU and the UK as compared to zero duty access given to competing nations like Bangladesh and Cambodia are affecting India’s exports performance,” India’s minister of state for textiles Darshana Jardosh said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

She also said that the country’s textile industry has also been affected by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The global pandemic of Covid-19 has adversely affected the textile sector such as restriction on social gathering, migration of labourers, disruption of supply chain, thus affecting all the stakeholders from farmers to traders/exporters in the value chain. However, the situation improved with time and production and exports looked up,” she said.

In another reply, the minister said India’s textile exports to China have gone up to $1.56 billion in 2020-21 compared to $1.13 billion in 2019-20.

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