After Bangladesh received the nod from Russia for duty-free imports, the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) is also seeking aid from the central government to talk and enter into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Russia to garner the benefits from the potential market.
In a press statement issued, Raja M Shanmugham, President, TEA raised the concern that since Bangladesh, a competitive market for India in terms of exports, has already received the green signal from Russia, it gives them a slight edge over us.
Notably, during the 2017-2018 period, the knitwear apparel imports to Russia from India were worth Rs. 241 crores and the woven clothing imports were Rs. 295 crores.
Furthermore, TEA’s president marked out that Russia is importing more garments that are winter-based, hence, there was a need to focus on the production of synthetic garments.
It is pertinent to add here that, India has already negotiated with Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) which includes countries such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia and that negotiation is still halted.
Federation of Buying Agents (FBA), a platform created for the buying agents, is also working to explore Russia in a big way. Lokesh Parashar of the FBA affirmed Apparel Resource, “We have some meeting with senior officials in this regard and we are planning a visit to Russia as well. I am hopeful that in future we will be able to get more business from Russia.”
The press statement from TEA also mentioned that Raja M Shanmugham has sent a requisition letter to Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce & Industry regarding the need to expedite FTA with Russia.
Source: https://in.apparelresources.com