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AEPC girds up loins to vie in global textiles mart

Ajit Jain
India Abroad Correspondent in Toronto

Now that the World Trade Organisation has announced the removal of quota restrictions on export of apparel by India and other countries from January 1, 2005 and the Indian government has changed apparel manufacturing industry from small to large industry category, Apparel Export Promotion Council has feverishly started promoting textiles and garments to compete in the international market.

Rakesh Sharma, additional director of AEPC brought a 17-member delegation for two days of discussions in Montreal, second largest city in Canada, even though he conceded in an interview that Montreal is 'a small market' so next time, most likely in November, they would visit both Montreal and Toronto.

India's current export of textiles and garments to Canada is of the order of approximately $250-million. "This is our maximum quota under existing WTO restrictions but once restrictions are removed the figure would go up many folds," he said.

India's exports of textiles and garments to the US is of $6-billion mark, not a small amount.

"We came here for meeting the Canadian buyers and show them our products, exchange our samples, fabrics, etc. and in return take samples from the local buyers," Sharma said and he claimed response was very encouraging "as our manufacturers have shown their capability and their prices are competitive."

During their 2-day show in Montreal, that concluded on May 23, twenty-six Canadian buyers visited them to see their trade show.

A similar trade show will be held in New York on May 30-31.

While India has brought apparel manufacturing in large-scale sector, government has also decided to allow 100 per cent foreign investment in this sector and 100 repatriation of profit of those investors, Sharma said.

All these efforts and initiatives are being taken now to prepare the industry for 2005 competition.

"We have to start preparing from now to meet challenges of 2005 when textiles and garments export will become completely free trade," Sharma said.

Those who came to Montreal part of the Indian delegation included Kalamkari Designs of Delhi, Indo-Japan Apparels of Madras, Lily's Apparels of Kandla Free Trade Zone in Kutch, Meenakshi India of Madras, and Shiv Kumar and Sons of Kapurthala.

Textiles and garments are integral to Indian economy and the leading component of the country's exports, said Sharma.

AEPC as the apex organisation representing all the garment exporters of India, is the facilitator par excellence for the $6-billion industry. It acts as the perfect bridge between overseas buyers and the exporters, he added.

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