India's apparel exports fall by 10.25% to Rs 93 bn in February 2018

Industry body AEPC raises concerns over downward trend

With India's apparel exports further declining by 10.25 per cent during the month of February 2018 against the corresponding month of February 2017, industry body Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has raised concerns over the downward trend.

As per the latest trade data released by AEPC, India's ready made garments (RMG) exports were worth roughly $1.44 billion in February 2018 against the corresponding month of February 2017, which was about $1.60 billion. In rupee terms export for February 2018 was Rs 92.8 billion as against Rs 107.7 billion in February 2017, with the decline of 13.86 per cent in rupee terms.

According to HKL Magu, chairman of AEPC, already apparel production was on a declining curve with industry registering decline of 10.4 per cent in the apparel production for the period April-January 2017-18.

"Now, for the period April- February 2017-18, there has been a drastic decline of 10.25 per cent in the apparel exports. Given the kind of uncertainty which has been prevailing due to US challenging India's export subsidy program at WTO, we are seriously worried about the future of the Industry. Exports are on a continuous decline since October 2017," said Magu.

The downward trend is further accentuated by competing nations such as Bangladesh which has registered an 8.68 per cent improvement for the period July 2017-February 2018 over last year.

AEPC has also raised concerns over the US filing a complaint at the WTO about India's export subsidy programmes like Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), Export Oriented Units Scheme, and Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme, among others.

Commenting further on the complaint filed by US, Magu said that the move has "turned up the heat" further on India.

"The withdrawal of export subsidies is only going to benefit countries like Bangladesh which is already showing consistent growth in their RMG exports. It is a drastic situation and we would like to request the government to intervene immediately to redress the situation and also allow the release of the refunds as until refunds start flowing, things will not improve both on the production as well as export front," AEPC chairman added.

Cumulatively, while India's RMG export to World in the April-February of 2017-18 was to the tune of $15.22 billion, posting a fall of 2.19 per cent compared to the same period of the previous financial year. During April-February 2016-17, India's apparel exports were to the tune of $15.55 billion.

RMG exports from Bangladesh for the period of July 2017-February 2018 stood at US $ 20.25 billion, which is an increase of 8.68 per cent improvement over previous year's figure of US $ 18.6 billion, as per the data released by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Bangladesh.