New Delhi: India's textile export to the US is reported to have made a 55 per cent growth in the first seven months of this year, which is termed to be the fastest pace of growth among the top five countries that export textile and garments to the US.
The export growth has mainly been linked to the revival of global trade and increased demand from Europe and the US for India's textiles and garments after the pandemic that had almost halted the trade across the globe.
Though the cumulative export of merchandise from India has also been boosted by the export of petroleum exports, the gems and jewellery sector, engineering goods and cereals, it is the textile and garments sector that contributed most to the export growth.
With the 55 per cent growth of export of apparel from India to the US in 2021, the trend in the global textile market dominated by the export from Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh to the US and the EU is said to have reversed. India's exports to the US surged 55 per cent during January-July 2021, higher than Vietnam's 18 per cent, Bangladesh's 29 per cent, China's 28 per cent and Mexico's 31 per cent, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Economic experts analyse India's export growth with the higher export orders by the Indian garment exporters and the strong home garment markets coupled with the loosened restrictions during the second COVID wave, especially in the country's clothing hubs in southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where the textile units have been active amid the pandemic restrictions.
While officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry have maintained that duty remission schemes such as RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products) and RoSCTL (Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies) have helped free the financial headroom available for exporters, players in the garments and textiles sector have flagged concerns over delayed operationalisation of tax rebate schemes and lower-than-expected benefits.