Apparel Online India Magazine November 1st Issue 2018 | Page 40

INDUSTRY LIVE
ITF initiative, Report on Competition Analysis and
Way Forward for FTAs
Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
with core markets is a long pending
demand of the apparel exporters
in the country and various
associations are putting their
efforts for the same. The Indian
Texpreneurs Federation (ITF),
a leading textile entrepreneurs’
association has come forward with
a report on Competition Analysis
and Way Forward for FTAs. ITF
recently organised an event in
Coimbatore to put forth this report.
Keshav Chandra, Joint Secretary,
Union Ministry of Commerce &
Industry and Aditi Das Rout,
Trade Advisor, Union Ministry
of Textiles were the chief guests
and guest of honour at the event,
respectively.
International trade firm, GNBC,
Mumbai helped in creating the
report, that marked out various
challenges and obstacles faced
by the export sector and the way
to move forward. ITF elaborated
that India’s exports of clothing
Keshav Chandra (fourth from left), Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Aditi Das Rout
(third from right), Trade Advisor, Union Ministry of Textiles along with ITF team, releasing the report
and textile declined significantly
last year. The association
urged the Government and
stakeholders to seriously look
into this downfall. The decline
was due to different known
and unknown reasons like
infrastructure, high transaction
costs and others. It is important
to mention here that the nation’s
export of clothing and textile
covered by chapters 61, 62 and
63 witnessed a dip of 23.21 per
cent, 31.64 per cent and 18.99
per cent, respectively during the
previous year. There are various
FTAs across the world, due to
which FTA member countries
enjoy tariff advantages and
not everyone is aware of this
fact, which is why a study was
undertaken to understand where
the country’s textile and clothing
industry faces difficulties and
how this can be overcome. The
ITF report also mentioned the
non-tariff barriers employed in
this sector and its impact on the
trade. Reportedly, the contribution
of the top 20 exporting countries
is over 85 per cent of the entire
World Exports. Though India finds
a place in the top 10 of the same,
its contribution is less compared
to its neighbouring countries like
Vietnam and Bangladesh. The
major contributors and India’s
competitors are China, Bangladesh,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan and
Turkey. Bangladesh and Cambodia,
being LDCs (Less Developed
Countries) have tariff advantage
in Developed and Developing
countries due to Duty-Free-Quota-
Free Treatment provided to them.
It is also being reported that India
has tariff disadvantage ranging
in between 1 per cent to 40 per
cent in almost all top importing
countries such as US, EU, Canada,
China, Australia, Switzerland, GCC
Countries, Israel and Chile.
Demure Fashions set to foray into export market
Kanpur-based kidswear
manufacturing company Demure
Fashions is now entering into the
export market and for this purpose,
it has started participating in
international sourcing fairs as
well. Offering a variety of designer
kidswear, including dresses, frocks,
skirts and tops among others, the
company, which has been doing a
good business from last five years
in the domestic market, has an
in-house capacity of more than
1,000 pieces per day. “Although
the current scenario for export is
not too enthusiastic, but to grow
we have to take such initiatives.
Challenges will be always there,
in fact, they may increase in near
future. So why not start now?”
stated Rahil Siddiqui, Director
40 Apparel Online India |
Kidswear is the core offering of Demure Fashions, Kanpur
Rahil Siddiqui, Director, Demure Fashions
of the company. He further added,
“We have some experience of
indirect export to the Middle East
and few other countries. Now by
participating in sourcing events,
we are understanding buyers,
demand of international markets,
and what changes we need to do in
our products, be it design or fabric.
It is like a learning process for
us. We are working hard to know
how we can explore the overseas
markets apart from participating
in fairs.” Established in 2013,
NOVEMBER 1-15, 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
Demure Fashions is also working to
improve its product offering as it is
further planning to focus more on
value addition, specially handwork.
Talking about the industry scenario
in Kanpur, Rahil shared that overall
infrastructure is okay in the city.