How Trump's tariffs threaten crisis for India's textile, apparel industry

Unless the country can leverage its raw material advantage and new trade deals

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 16, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin raised an alarm. Up to 3 million jobs in the state’s textile and apparel sector were at immediate risk, he wrote. Stalin pointed to the impact of the United States government’s 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports, which threatens livelihoods in a sector that employs 7.5 million people in Tamil Nadu.

 

While the chief minister’s appeal focused on his state, the crisis is national in scale. The textile and apparel sector is India’s second-largest employment provider, after agriculture, and it is