Source:The Stitch Times
A double-digit decline in apparel exports from India duringMay, following 9.5 per cent fall in April this year may have dismayed theapparel exporters, but it did fail to evoke a response from a non-responsiveFinance Minister, despite most sincere efforts made by Apparel Export PromotionCouncil and other trade bodies of apparel exporters to brief him on the hazardsof sharp decline that seems to have set in apparel exports.
Provisional figures show that apparel worth $763 millionwere exported in May 2009 compared to $863 million in the same period lastyear, representing a decline of 11.58 per cent. This only reflected a sharperdecline from April 2009 when the apparel exports touched $809 million asagainst $896 million in April, 2008. During 2008-09, apparel exports were 14per cent short of $11.62 billion dollar target and leveled $10.13 billiondollars-blissfully 4 per cent higher than $9.68 billion during previous fiscal.This is despite the fact that 7 months out of 12 months of fiscal 2008-09 werefree from export contraction resulting from the global economic slowdown-moreappropriately recession.
The apparel exporters had legitimate reasons-andexpectations-that they would get the much-needed relief from the Government onthe face of continuing decline in apparel exports. There was even a greaterreason and merit in their expectations in view of known and acknowledged factthat China had made six corrections in Duty Refund rates in the past one year.Rakesh Vaid, Chairman, AEPC said, "No such measure has come from ourGovernment." He cautioned "Unless the Government takes concrete stepslike China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam have taken to beat theimpact of recessionary trends worldwide; there could be a collateral damage toIndian garment export industry."
Originallypublished in The Stitch Times; August 2009
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