No curbs needed: CAI

Disappointed with the movement launched by certain organisations of the cotton sector to restrict and ban exports, Cotton Association of India (CAI) today said that no such restrictions are required on cotton exports.

“Such recommendations (like banning cotton exports), if implemented, would bring the country back to the pre-liberalisation era of the 1980’s and early 1990’s,” the cotton body said in a statement. Earlier, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (Citi) and the Southern India Mills’ Association (Sima) had demanded a ban on cotton exports from India as firm prices were adversely affecting the Indian textile industry.

Contrary to Sima and Citi’s opinion, CAI believes that any such move will adversely affect the interest of the nation in general and that of the Indian farmer in particular.

Countering the view of textile industry, CAI said that despite the rise in prices locally, Indian mills continue to get cotton cheaper than almost any of their counterparts in the world. The Indian mills also have the option to import cotton without any restrictions and nil import duty unlike their competing counterparts in other countries such as China, where mills have to face quota restrictions, duties and local taxes to import cotton.