According to foreign news, the Indian government has recently raised basic tariffs on a number of textiles and clothing, including fibers, carpets, knitwear, and certain specialty textile fibers and fabrics. The tariff increase is 20%. This measure will take effect from July 16, 2018.
According to media reports, the measure involves a total of 45 changes, and in most cases, the effective tax rate is nearly doubled. According to statistics, import tariffs on coats, trousers, jackets, women’s clothing and other items have been increased from the previous 10% to 20%, while tariffs on certain other products have been directly increased by 20%.
The Chairman of the Indian Textile and Apparel Exporters Association said in a press release that this measure will help protect India’s domestic textile and apparel industry and employment.
In the past five years, India’s textile and clothing imports have increased by 17%. India’s apparel imports increased to 49.83 billion rupees in 2017/18 from 39.94 billion rupees in the previous year. The country’s leading retail stores have also started importing clothing from Bangladesh and other countries, mainly due to the obvious price advantage of imported clothing compared with locally produced clothing.
Considering the competitive pressure faced by India from low-priced products such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, the Indian Textile and Apparel Exporters Association has submitted a joint white paper to the Ministry of Textiles detailing the threats, export pressure and other difficulties faced by the Indian textile industry. .
It is understood that the last time India raised import tariffs on textiles was in October 2017. The increase in import tariffs on textiles and clothing caused a downward trend in India’s textile and clothing exports. According to statistics, India’s textile and apparel exports fell by 16.62% and 12.34% respectively in May and June 2018. (Title: India raises import tariffs on textiles and clothing by 20%)
