India-Australia Trade Pact, a great stimulant for the growth of Indian textiles – SIMA

The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement signed on April 2022 comes into force with effect from 29th December, would be great boon for the growth of Indian textiles.


Coimbatore: This pact is the first trade agreement of India with a developed country in the recent past, and it is likely to benefit the whole gamut of products and services and commercial relations between the two important nations, namely India and Australia.

In a Press Release issued here today, Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textile, Piyush Goyal for the historical achievement.

While noting that the highly labor- intensive textiles and clothing industry will be greatly benefited out of this pact, he has added that allowing import of 51,000 MT of duty-free cotton from January 2023 and 419 MT of duty-free cotton from 29th of December to 31st December 2022 from Australia would benefit the cotton textiles value chain in the country that has started facing the shortage of quality cotton with the increased demand.

Ravi Sam has noted that the trade pact with UAE and Mauritius already started yielding better results and the pact with Australia would provide zero duty market access for several Indian textiles goods especially readymade garments and home textiles.

Further adding Ravi Sam said that the pact would greatly benefit to bridge the trade deficit of around USD 8.5 billion with Australia as the bilateral agreement is expected to cross USD 45 to USD 50 billion trade in the next five years as against the current level of USD 25 billion.

The SIMA Chairman has also said that the 11% import duty on cotton and removal of around 10% tariff barrier that existed so far for export into Australia would boost the global competitiveness of Indian textiles and clothing industry.

He has hoped that speedy FTA negotiations with Canada, UK and few other countries would enable India to achieve the envisaged exports of USD 100 billion and also the total textile business size of USD 350 billion in a span of five to six years.

Ravi Sam has stated that the initiative has given tremendous moral boost for the Indian textiles and clothing industry that is currently undergoing recession owing to the global recession and economic slowdown.

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