Trade pact with US 'a major catalyst' enhancing textile trade: India

08 Feb '26

2 min read

Trade pact with US 'a major catalyst' enhancing textile trade: India

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Insights

Terming the India-US Trade Agreement 'a major catalyst' enhancing bilateral textile trade, the Indian textile industry expressed hope that this will be 'a major economic game changer' for the sector by generating additional employment and encouraging investments by US entities.
The agreement would also enable the industry to be cost competitive and diversify risks by sourcing intermediates from the US.

Terming the recently-signed India-US Trade Agreement ‘a major catalyst’ enhancing bilateral textile trade, the Indian textile industry expressed hope that this will be ‘a major economic game changer’ for the sector by generating additional employment and encouraging investments by US entities.

“For textiles exports, it opens up a $118 billion US global imports market of textiles, apparels and made-ups. With the US being India’s largest export destination of around $10.5 billion [in] exports, comprising around 70 per cent apparel and 15 per cent made ups, this is a major opportunity,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The 18 per cent reciprocal tariffs on all the textiles products including apparel and made-ups will not only remove the disadvantage that Indian exporters had, but would place them in a better position than most competitors like Bangladesh (20 per cent), China (30 per cent), Pakistan (19 per cent) and Vietnam (20 per cent) who have higher reciprocal tariffs. This would alter the market dynamics as large buyers would surely relook at their sourcing in the light of this agreement,” it noted.

The agreement would also enable the textile industry to be cost competitive and diversify risks by sourcing intermediates from the United States, and that would facilitate manufacturing of value-added textiles in the country and diversify production and exports, it added.

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