Textile ministry to submit report on NTBs

The Ministry of Textiles will soon submit a report to the Ministry of Commerce and Industries on the problems being faced by domestic exporters due to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) imposed by the western world.

"The survey is underway and the results are likely in a month. The report will be submitted to the Ministry of Commerce and Industries," said Paramananda Nayak, director (market research), textiles committee. The survey is being conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Experts say the country's textile exporters face multiple NTBs in different markets, which include labeling of shipment, security parameters, complicated requirements of rules of origin and documentary clearance requirements. 
 

TEXTILES & CLOTHING EXPORTS TO MAJOR WESTERN COUNTRIES
Country	(In Rs Crore)
	2005-06	2006-07
USA	16,662.76	16,927.21
UK	5,097.26	5,131.75
Germany	3,852.39	3,825.02
France	3,273.19	3,369.81
Italy	3,023.48	3,353.77
Spain	2,144.58	1,922.86
Canada	1,580.30	1,524.48
Headline * Ministry of Textiles to submit a report on non-tariff barriers (NBTs) * EU and US : the main trouble makers for Indian exporters * Ministry wants NBTs to be listed by countries at WTO * Network for NTBs-related information dissemination need to be strengthened

"NTBs are the growing issue in international trade as it acts as a hidden trade control by governments. Negotiations are on at World Trade Organisation (WTO) to list the NTBs, but no success has been made," added Nayak. He further said that in the free trade agreements (FTA) between India and EU, no one talked about NTBs.

Industry experts said it was perceived that trade in the post-quota era will remove barriers it, but now, it had, in fact, become more complicated.

According to them, quota still continues to be used as a convenient protectionist instrument as seen in the case of the European Union (EU) and the US imposing quantitative restrictions.

Atal Bihari Bhanja, an expert on international trade laws, said, "On an average, NBTs account for a loss of $30 billion in global trade of textiles and clothing per year."

The EU, exporters say, is the main culprit in terms of NTBs followed by the US. More than 75 per cent of the country's textiles exports head towards the US and the EU.

Suresh Ramrakhiani, an economist with Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), said: "In many cases NTBs come to the knowledge of exporters as and when they initiate the process of documentation in the destination countries or when their consignment reaches the destination. The exporters feel confused."