The European Union decided to block import of textiles items from India for which additional quotas of 7,000 tonnes had been provided.
A consignment of over 31 lakh sweat shirts, estimated to be worth around Rs 75 crore, was put on embargo by EU authorities, industry sources said. The consignment, the first of the additional 7,000 tonnes quota sanctioned to India, was still in transit.
Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Virendra Uppal confirmed the development and said steps had been initiated to ensure that the consignment reached EU shores on time and that Indian exporters were not affected.
The government, through the minister economic in the Indian High Commission in Brussels was in touch with EU authorities, textiles ministry officials said. Uppal was confident the problem would be sorted out in 10 days.
The EU had released special category quotas for various products with a cap of imports up to 7,000 tonnes. Quotas were issued to Indian exporters by AEPC following the EU decision and the exporters were in the process of dispatching their consignments.
Uppal, however, said EU authorities did not credit the additional quotas to Indian exporters and, therefore, stopped the consignment.
