Pak, Vietnam vie with India for textile space in US, EU

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam are giving tough competition to Indian textiles in the US and EU market, as volatility in rupee value and archaic labour laws are impacting price competitiveness of India's textile shipments, a study by Ficci s aid.

"India's textile export prices have not been as competitive as those of smaller countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan and faced severe competition in the EU and US markets during 2005 and 2007,'' the study said.

While an appreciating rupee is partly to be blamed for this lackluster performance, other disabilities like economies of scale and labour laws are making India's exports uncompetitive in global trade compared to shipments from other countries, it said.

These issues require appropriate interventions to enable Indian exporters increase their share in world textiles trade, it added. In the US market, while India's average price for textile exports was higher than China's and Pakistan's, its share in US gl obal textile imports increased by a mere 1.6% between 1995 and 2007. Vietnam's share rose to 4.7% from 0.04%, while that of China went up to 33.5% from 11% in the same period. (PTI)