TIRUPPUR: The central government is working to address issues posed by the 'unsustainable' US tariff hike on Indian exports as soon as possible, said Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council, in Tiruppur on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters, Sekhri said, "We have had some small hiccups due to the US tariff hike. It is not sustainable because American consumers will also be affected by this. The central government is working round the clock and discussing with the US to ensure that this issue gets resolved as soon as possible. I hope that it happens in the next two to four weeks."
Meantime, the government will come up with some new policies and some assistance to the US exporters and hopefully it should be announced in the next week or so, Sekhri added.
Apparel exports worth about $2 or $ 2.5 billion will be hit if there is no quick resolution.
"In FY 2024-25, we were doing $16 billion worth of apparel exports and of this $5.2 billion went to the US. By the time the tariff was imposed we had already shifted about goods valued at $2.2 billion and about $1.2 billion was in the pipeline. This means, if this situation continues, exports worth more than $2 or $ 2.5 billion will be really affected."
Sekhri, however, sounded optimistic about India retaining its market share despite the odds. "Those who have been buying for a long time are not going to abandon India. Because they also know that these (high tariffs) are not sustainable. We are not saying there is no impact, but I think all are resilient enough to absorb this impact, but it will persist for the next two months or three months," he surmised.
Sekhri expects Indian garment exports to non-US markets to pick up.
"The FTA with the UK is likely to be operationalised by the end of March. After three years, we expect garment exports to (the UK to) grow from $1.2 billion to reach about $2.5 billion. We already have an FTA with Australia. The AEPC is also looking for new markets. We conduct many fairs for this purpose. We are looking at non-refusal markets."
The 52nd India International Knit Fair began in Tiruppur on Wednesday and will end on Friday.
Sudhir Sekhri inaugurated the fair.
AEPC Vice-Chairman A Sakthivel, Tiruppur Exporters' Association President KM Subramanian, General Secretary N Thirukumaran and others were present.