India's garment industry has missed the 'coronavirus' bus. Once again

The virus in China and a withdrawal of EU concessions to Cambodia offer two major opportunities for Indian garment exporters - but none of them are in a position to gain

The troubled Indian garment industry is at the crossroads of a major opportunity owing to two crises in core producer markets of Asia. First, the Coronavirus outbreak in China has western markets eyeing alternative sources. According to rating agency Crisil, this could lead to $2-3 billion worth of incremental orders for Indian exporters in FY2021. In another development in August last year, European Commission partially suspended the “Everything But Arms (EBA)” trade programme for Cambodia for human rights violations. The programme gave that country duty-free exports to the EU and the withdrawal amounts to about one-fifth, or about $1.1 billion,