12 January 2023, Mumbai
Sanjay Garg, President of NITMA, expressed his gratitude to the Honorable PM Narendra Modi and Honorable Minister for Commerce & Industry & Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal Ji for the historic accomplishment.
The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement between India and Australia, which came into effect on December 29, 2022. The two nations' business relations as well as the full range of goods and services are set to profit from this agreement, which is the first trade agreement between India and a developed nation in recent memory.
According to Garg, the trade agreements with the UAE and Mauritius have already begun to provide better results, while the agreement with Australia will give various Indian textile products, particularly ready-to-wear clothing and home textiles, zero-duty market access.
According to the president of NITMA, the removal of the 10% tariff barrier for exporting to Australia as well as the 11.0% import charge on cotton will increase India's textile and apparel industry's competitiveness in the world market. In a space of five to six years, he thought that expeditious FTA discussions with Canada, the United Kingdom, and a few other nations would allow India to reach its target exports of USD 100 billion and the USD 350 billion total market size for textiles.
Garg also stated that the treaty would tremendously benefit to bridge the trade deficit of roughly USD 8.5 billion with Australia.