TN CM’s Talks With Suresh Prabhu Puts Garment Exporters At Ease

Trade & Policy

TN CM’s Talks With Suresh Prabhu Puts Garment Exporters At Ease

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s one-to-one interaction about the major grievances faced by the Tirupur Garment Exporters’ cluster with Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has set to rest their fears about the situation they are faced with.

The conversation followed close in heels to the recent petitioning made by the garment exporters’ cluster from Tirupur to the state government about the problems that plagued the growth in the textile sector during the season 2017-18. Palaniswami had urged Suresh Prabhu to take up the garment exporters’ plea for improved interest subvention from the existing 3% to a healthy 5% in the apparel sector. In addition to this, the garment exporters have made a plea for enhancing the duty drawback to enable them to stay cost competitive in the global markets. The chief minister communicated the plea to the Union Commerce Minister.

Thirdly, the garment exporters in this cluster were facing stiff competition in the European and American markets due to lack of level playing field as these markets gave preferential treatment to Bangladesh and few other neighboring countries on the basis of trade tariff agreements.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in his meeting with Prabhu took up this issue and called for measures to speed up the signing of free trade agreements (FTAs) with the European Union, United States of America and United Kingdom.