The prices of poly spun yarn reduced by ₹2-3 per kg in last one week in north India’s textile hub of Ludhiana. It is due to a large number of mills shifting from cotton yarn to polyester yarn because of poor supply of cotton, according to market sources. However, polyester-cotton yarn and acrylic yarn prices remained stable amid poor demand. A Ludhiana-based trader Ashok Singhal told Fibre2Fashion, “Yarn market is going to see a big change in term of supplies. Many mills are shifting towards polyester yarn to avoid the problem of scarcity of cotton. Such change can influence yarn prices in the coming weeks.” Sources said that some mills can observe one day holiday in a week to reduce cotton consumption, while other mills are focusing on finer yarn of higher count to reduce cotton consumption. As a result, there will be higher availability of finer yarn but short supply of coarse yarn. Ludhiana, the country’s most prominent man-made yarn market witnessed pressure on polyester yarn. Poly spun yarn fell down by ₹2-3 per kg in last week. However, polyestercotton yarn and acrylic yarn remained stable. Demand from downstream industry remained weak but mills were not willing to reduce price due to costly cotton. In Ludhiana market, 30 count poly spun yarn was sold at ₹190-200 per kg (inclusive GST), while recycled 30 count poly spun yarn was at ₹180-185 per kg. 30 count PC combed yarn (48/52) was sold at ₹295-310 per kg. 30 count PC carded yarn (65/35) was priced at ₹260-270 per kg, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro. 20 count PC (recycled-O/E) PSF yarn (40/60) was traded at ₹190-195 per kg. Acrylic NM (2/48) was priced at ₹330-340 and acrylic NM (2/32) at ₹280-290 per kg. Meanwhile prices of PSF remained unchanged at ₹123 per kg. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has fixed prices of raw material as PTA ₹92.10 (+ ₹1.3) and MEG ₹62 (- ₹1.80) and MELT at ₹99.52 per kg. Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.03 per cent to $108.35 per barrel, which is the source product for polyester value chain. n the global market, ZCE cotton yarn May 2022 futures traded lower by CNY 315 to CNY 27,470 per ton and September 2022 traded down by CNY 190 at CNY 28,075 per MT today. ZCE cotton May lost CNY 155 to CNY 21,420 per MT and September contract traded down by CNY 140 to CNY 21,415 per MT. ICE cotton futures edged lower on Tuesday, as a stronger dollar and a decline in broader commodities markets weighed on investor mood. Cotton contract for May 2022 closed at 139.68 cents, down 506 points; July 2022 closed at 138.33 cents, down 492 points, December 2022 closed at 120.95 cents, down 252 points. The US dollar hit a new 20-year high against the Japanese yen. Cotton is more expensive for international buyers due to a stronger dollar. In north India, cotton prices softened by ₹400-600 per candy of 356 kg on Wednesday amid bearish trend in world market and weaker demand. Cotton arrival also declined. Cotton was quoted at ₹93,400 to 94,500 per candy in Punjab. Cotton was sold at ₹91,600 to 93,900 in Haryana, ₹94,800 to 95,000 in Upper Rajasthan and ₹89,100 to 91,200 per candy in Lower Rajasthan.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal has called upon the Cost & Management Accountants to ensure quality production by industry and help boost India’s exports. Cost Accountants help make the Indian Industry cost competitive and cost conscious, he said. “If we start loading costs to our export products and if we literally start doing marginal costing on the other hand, it can make a world of difference to our cost competitiveness, our ability to increase our exports and, frankly, our ability to (a) recover its cost and (b) start reporting profits,” said Shri Goyal, after giving away the ‘17th National Awards for Excellence in Cost Management-2019’ and ‘5th CMA awards-2017 & 6th CMA Awards2019’, organised by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) here today. Shri Goyal said ‘Exports’ is the “virtuous circle of prosperity” that we have to focus upon. “Anything we add on the exports front is adding to our economic activity; when we add to our economic activity, look at what all we are doing, - (a) we earn precious foreign exchange, which will help us balance our import requirements, our foreign currency requirements, in addition to, of course, investments and large remittances that over 3 crore Indians all over the world send to India, but we still have a shortfall,” he said. Underlining a strong and stable Rupee will be for the “wider good” of foreign trade, Shri Goyal said our higher Forex reserves help our currency from depreciation. “If we can save our currency from depreciating, we can reduce interest rates, we can reduce the impact of inflation on our society, after all we have a large number of products that we are importing,” he said. Shri Goyal said ICAI has been nurturing the Cost & Management Accountant (CMA) professionals for 78 years. Today, it is the 2nd largest Cost & Management Accounting body in the world & largest in Asia, with more than 85,000 professionals, and about 5 lakh students pursuing CMA. Shri Goyal said the CMAs are the guardians of growth. Keeping a check on costs, they help organizations in ensuring that there’s efficiency in every activity, he said. “Let’s all take one step ahead in this journey. And as the Prime Minister says, ‘When each one of us takes one step, it’s 135 crore steps towards prosperity,” he said.
Source: PIB
Automobile and auto components, advanced chemistry cell batteries, specialty steel and high-efficiency solar panels have attracted the maximum interest. India's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to encourage domestic manufacturing has generated investment commitments of ₹2.34 lakh crore across 14 sectors, according to data collated from various ministries. Automobile and auto components, advanced chemistry cell batteries, specialty steel and high-efficiency solar panels have attracted the maximum interest. The government expects the scheme to generate additional output worth Rs 28.15 lakh crore and 6.45 million new jobs over the next five years. There has been a tremendous response across all the sectors for which the scheme has been implemented, said a senior government official. Total outlay for the scheme across the 14 sectors is Rs 1.97 lakh crore. The programme, launched two years ago, offers a cash incentive for three to five years on the incremental sale of goods made in India over the determined baseyear sales. Additionally, the identified beneficiaries are required to commit to a certain minimum investment in India. "The PLI scheme is an initiative that has the potential to significantly enhance the scale of manufacturing in India - it has started off quite well," said Pawan Goenka, chairman of SCALE Committee and former managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra. Sustaining Exports "Going forward, we will need to have flexibility to make changes, wherever necessary, in terms of adapting to emerging requirements," Goenka said. The Steering Committee for Advancing Local Value-Add and Exports (SCALE) has been formed by the ministry of commerce and industry and works with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. "In the next few years, PLI units will have additional production to sustain exports on a sustainable basis," said Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. "Companies will procure more from domestic sources, which will help our ancillaries to grow and maintain necessary standards to eventually become suppliers to the world." According to Sahai, while the scheme has picked up well across sectors, there is some apprehension among textile manufacturers. "We have to give a little more time to the scheme to see if any changes are required," he said. The programme seeks to enhance India's manufacturing capabilities and exports.
Source: Economic Times
Senior executives with export bodies told FE that they have received “a lot of enquiries” from Russia. This has prompted them to step up engagement with Russian importers so that, in the event of a cessation of violence in Ukraine, goods can be despatched swiftly. Domestic exporters are rushing to firm up deals with Russia, as a surge in Moscow’s interest in Indian goods —mainly farm commodities, pharmaceuticals and marine products — has somewhat revived bilateral trade momentum that was disrupted by the war in Ukraine. Senior executives with export bodies told FE that they have received “a lot of enquiries” from Russia. This has prompted them to step up engagement with Russian importers so that, in the event of a cessation of violence in Ukraine, goods can be despatched swiftly. Ajay Sahai, director-general of the apex exporters’ body FIEO said, “We are also organising interactions between Russian importers and Indian exporters. This is at an initial stage. One thing that is very clear is that Russia is interested in getting many products from India at this point of time. Lets’ see how the situation pans out.” In a communication to its members on April 7, state-backed pharma export body Pharmexcil has said the Indian embassy in Moscow has been approached by Russian firms. “While some of them required assistance in getting suppliers of some particular pharmaceuticals, others are interested in distributing them,” it said. The Russian companies that have shown interest include New Technologies, Pharmstandard, Appolo, Pharmamed and Simkodent. While farm products made up 18% of India’s $3.2-billion exports to Russia until February last fiscal, pharmaceutical products accounted for almost 15%. India still had a goods trade deficit of $5.5 billion with Russia between April and February of FY22. Indian exporters have been keen on the resumption of trade after payments for the goods shipped to Russia — before the war broke out in late February — started to flow in recently, ending weeks of uncertainties. Russian importers have resorted to payments in the euro through non-sanctioned banks there. Subsequently, the correspondent Indian banks have released payments to relevant domestic exporters after converting the currencies to rupees. This payment mechanism will continue for now, as New Delhi has denied the possibility of undertaking the rupee-rouble trade. However, exporters are also conscious of persisting logistics challenges that are hampering any bid to supply to Russia now. Major shipping lines are rejecting bookings to and from Russia, and only very limited Indian supplies are reaching Moscow through Georgia port. However, they hope that once the war draws to a close or ceasefire is announced, supply-chain disruptions will also ease.
Source: Financial Express
The targets - of $450-480 billion for merchandise and $350 billion for services - were discussed in a series of meetings that commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal had with exporters on Wednesday. India is likely to set an ambitious export target of around $800 billion for goods and services for 2022-23, almost 19.5% higher than $670 billion clocked in 2021-22. The targets - of $450-480 billion for merchandise and $350 billion for services - were discussed in a series of meetings that commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal had with exporters on Wednesday. India's goods exports touched a record $420 billion in 2021-22, exceeding the government's target by about 5% and up 40% on-year while services exports touched $250 billion. "These are consultative meetings and the targets are yet to be fixed," said an official. Exporters raised the issue of high prices of inputs as buyers are now reluctant to raise prices proportionately due to sufficient inventory and lack of demand. Restoration of the Market Access Initiative scheme for opening of warehouses overseas, easing of visa requirements for inbound tourism and a revised Transport and Marketing Assistance scheme for certain agricultural products in view of the opportunity in farm exports from the Russia-Ukraine crisis were also taken up, according to sources. "Despite a rise in Covid cases globally, there is an expectation that travel and tourism will grow this year," said an industry representative.
Source: Economic Times
The minister added that devaluation increases cost of imports, brings inflation into the country, pushes up interest cost and makes products uncompetitive as India is importdependent for raw materials. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said that rupee devaluation or weakening the currency is detrimental to India’s interest, growth and competitiveness as it increases cost of imports, inflation and cost of interest. He also assured investors that they have nothing to worry when they come to India as there is no single incident of labour disruption in economic activity in the last few years. Emphasising that India still is largely an import-led economy and imports continue to be more than exports, he said at the 15th Civil Services Day: “Despite some theories and I totally disagree with that theory, and I don’t know what the economists say, there’s a large school of thought which says that you need to devalue your currency so that you become competitive in the export market”. He said it is important for India to expand exports significantly and encourage investments to increase foreign exchange inflows into the country as exports helps in earning precious foreign exchange and keep the rupee stable. “I was an exporter in my private life and I can assure that with my experience and engagement with large section of industry across the globe confirms that rupee devaluation or weakening our currency is actually detrimental to our nation's interest, to our growth story and to our ability to be competitive in the long run,” he said. The minister said that it increases the cost of imports, brings inflation into the country, pushes up interest cost and makes products uncompetitive as India is import-dependent on raw materials. Healthy exports, investments and remittances, he said, help in growing foreign exchange reserves, which are currently over $600 billion. Goyal said that India’s pharma exports hold huge potential and can increase to $200 billion in the coming years. “I say that to investors that you have nothing to worry when you come to India. There is no single incident of labour disruption (in economic activity),” Goyal said. He said that “it is misguided thinking that opening up or more flexibility in our engagement with labour is detrimental to labour interests is a flawed argument similar to the dollar appreciation argument”. Goyal said that labour gets more opportunities as more investments flow into the country.
Source: Economic Times
Companies in these sectors, which were already suffering from GST on cross charges for common services, will see further rise in operational cost due to inclusion of salary. For other companies, it is more sort of a compliance burden as taxes paid in supply of services to branches are recovered through ITC mechanism. With companies complaining about the levy of tax on allocation of salary cost of headoffice employees to branches under the so-called cross-charge mechanism, the Goods and Services Tax Council will likely refer the matter to its law committee to review its applicability. The levy has increased the cost of firms in sectors currently exempt from goods & services tax (GST) and raised the compliance burden for most others. “References have come from many places, including some industry associations on the matter. It will be taken to the GST law committee,” a senior official told FE. Industry sources said there has been a sudden surge in the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) investigation where issues such as inclusion of salary in cross-charge is being raised. GST is 18% on supply of services under cross charge. In December 2021, the Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR), Maharashtra had ruled in the case of Cummins India that allocation and recovery of the salary of the employees of the head office from the branch office/units will be subject to GST. The company had sought a ruling on the applicability of GST on allocation and recovery of the salary cost of the head office’s employees from the branch offices in different states. The objective of cross-charge was to pass on the input tax credit from head office to branch offices in different states seamlessly for GST paid on common services of a company such as rent, IT and advertisement, industry sources said. However, there are no specific guidelines on the manner and structure of cross charge or whether to include salary costs of head office staff or not in it for taxation purpose. “The GST Council needs to examine whether cross charge mechanism should continue and in what form. The most important issue is as to whether salary of one office (typically head office) staff has to be included in this for levying GST,” said Pratik Jain, Partner, Price Waterhouse & Co LLP. The most impacted sectors are those exempt from GST such as healthcare, education, electricity and petroleum as input tax credit is not available, Jain said. It is also adversely impacting sector such as restaurants and real estate which don’t get input tax credit on taxes paid on input services and it becomes an additional cost for them. Companies in these sectors, which were already suffering from GST on cross charges for common services, will see further rise in operational cost due to inclusion of salary. For other companies, it is more sort of a compliance burden as taxes paid in supply of services to branches are recovered through ITC mechanism. In the pre-GST regime, any supply of service between head office and branch office was not taxable. Hence, it has been a matter of dispute between companies and tax officials after the GST was rolled out in July 2017. Inclusion of salary in cross charges for GST has further complicated the matter as industry is of the view that employees work for the company as a whole and not employed for head office or branches.
Source: Financial Express
Two years of Covid have sapped the economy and, as RBI noted recently, economic activity is recovering but is barely above its pre-pandemic level. A downgrade in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) growth forecast for India to 8.2% for the current fiscal was always on the cards post the outbreak of the RussiaUkraine conflict and the surge in crude oil prices to levels way past $100 per barrel. Indeed, the impact of the war is expected to be so severe that global growth will decelerate sharply to just 3.6% in 2022 from current estimates of a robust 6.1% in 2021. Moreover, the effects will be long-lasting because over the medium term, beyond 2023, global growth is projected at 3.3%. Worryingly, from India’s point of view, the increase in world trade volumes is expected to slip to just 5% in 2022 and further to 4.4% in 2023. That, to some extent, explains the IMF’s very modest growth estimate for India of 6.9% for FY24. Two years of Covid have sapped the economy and, as RBI noted recently, economic activity is recovering but is barely above its pre-pandemic level. The high inflation, the fallout of the rise in prices of key commodities, could jeopardise the nascent recovery. The high inflation could squeeze real disposable incomes, making lower-income households particularly vulnerable as expenditure on food and electricity is typically inelastic. Even if nominal incomes rise, demand could be reined in as companies move to pass on the additional costs to consumers. If consumption slows, it would further delay the pick-up in private sector investments. Capacity utilisation moved up to 72.4% in Q3FY22 from 68.3% in the previous quarter, but this could reverse if firms believe demand will stay stagnant for a prolonged period. In fact, it is possible companies would even scale back production from current levels if they believe it is not profitable enough because high raw material and interests are hurting. A cutback in production by companies would be deleterious for the economy at a time when unemployment remains high and very few sectors are creating jobs. To be sure, the renewed demand for services will cushion the blow, but here too, rising costs, especially of transport, could rein in spends. Exports had started contributing meaningfully to India’s output, but slowing global growth—especially in Europe and China—could queer the pitch. Already, recent trends indicating a deceleration in volume growth, even before the Russia-Ukraine war, are worrying. The volume growth for non-petroleum exports slipped to 7.6% y-o-y in February (3-month moving average) from the recent peak of 9.4% y-o-y in November last year. While nominal export may hold up due to higher prices, a tapering off in volumes— which could get exacerbated as global demand slows—is bad news for the labour market. Unfortunately, there isn’t much the government can do to stimulate demand given the sharp rise in its expenses on food and fertiliser subsidies, as also on welfare schemes. Any additional spends by way of a stimulus would need to be met from market borrowings— already high at a gross `14.5 trillion—which would only push interest rates higher. One way to minimise the pain for consumers would be to trim excise duties on diesel as had been done last October. While this might come at the cost of a cut in capex, it would certainly help rein in inflation and reduce the erosion in demand. Expanding the Budget would not be desirable at this juncture as the tax collections might be less buoyant than in FY22. Rather banks, which have been capitalised by the government at the cost of the taxpayer, should be prodded to lend more, especially to mid-sized and small firms. Easier credit at affordable rates is needed to support businesses and stimulate demand. Else, the reality will be a GDP growth print that is much closer to RBI’s 7.2% estimate rather than the IMF’s 8.2%. The tag of the world’s fastest-growing economy would then be just a small consolation.
Source: Financial Express
Both the sides have been negotiating since January for a trade agreement, under which New Delhi is seeking special arrangements to facilitate freer movement of its skilled professionals. India and the UK will pledge to further bolster their economic engagement through a trade deal, apart from taking defence and strategic ties to new heights, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson kicks off a two-day visit to this country, starting Thursday. Both the sides have been negotiating since January for a trade agreement, under which New Delhi is seeking special arrangements to facilitate freer movement of its skilled professionals. The countries are keen to hammer out a pact, the scope of which could be more expansive than what was previously assumed, in late 2022, sources told FE. Initially, both the sides were eyeing an interim deal that aimed to cover about 65% of goods and about a third of bilateral services trade. The trade deal is expected to feature in discussions between Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the sources, New Delhi and London are also negotiating on mutual recognition agreements in the pharmaceuticals sector, which would provide substantial market access for exporters from both the countries. India is also pushing for greater access to the UK market in key services sectors like IT/ITeS, nursing, education, healthcare, including AYUSH and audio-visual services. The UK is keen on supplying alcoholic drinks like Scotch at zero or concessional duties to India, which imposes a basic customs duty of as much as 150% on alcohol. Recently, India decided to allow Australian wine at concessional duties under an interim trade deal. London also wants greater access in information and communications technology (ICT) products, certain other high-end consumer and capital goods and digital services. It is also interested in getting greater access in sensitive services, including legal and accounting services. For its part, India is pitching for duty-free access in sectors like textiles & garments, leather, footwears, marine products, iron & steel, gem & jewellery and processed food products, sources said. The interim deal with the UK was proposed to be followed by a broader free trade agreement (FTA). India sealed an FTA with the UAE in February and the interim deal with Australia in March. Both India and the UK launched the formal negotiations in January for a “fair and balanced” FTA, which could ultimately cover more than 90% of tariff lines. They aimed to double bilateral trade of both goods and services to about $100 billion by 2030. The India-UK trade is currently dominated by services, which make up about 70% of the overall annual commerce. Before the pandemic, India shipped out goods worth $8.7 billion to the UK in FY20 and its imports from that nation stood at $6.7 billion. Between April and January this fiscal, India’s exports to the UK rose 37% from a year before to $8.5 billion, while its imports surged 55% to $5.9 billion. India mainly exports textiles & garments, gems and jewellery and certain capital and consumer goods to Britain and imports capital and consumer goods in large volumes as well.
Source: Financial Express
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her principal chief advisor Amit Mitra met representatives of 14 countries at Bengal Global Business Summit in a separate interactive session, where they discussed investment opportunities in Bengal. Leading the foreign delegates was a team from the UK, which had representatives of 49 companies attending the summit. “All the companies are very keen on investing in Bengal. I have been told 17- 18 companies are already in talks to invest or expand their operations in Bengal,” said Nicholas D Lowe, British High Commissioner in Kolkata. A senior official representing the Japanese delegation said the business summit was taking place at an opportune time as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had visited India recently and had spoken about a slew of investment proposals. “We have a wonderful investment relation with Bengal. We have small and medium-sized enterprises, we have a Kawasaki warehouse in Singur and three Japanese entrepreneurs have been making e-rickshaws in Kolkata for five years. On the educational front, VisvaBharati has a rising number of students for the Japanese language courses. We look to expand our investment opportunities here further,” said the official. The Italian delegate spoke of how Bengal and several states in Italy were similar in characteristics. “We have a lot to do together in the MSME sector, special trading line, machinery technology and also tourism sector,” said the official. Mitra asked him to even see if state-to-state collaboration was possible, focusing on collaborations in the sectors of designing (automobile and gem and jewellery) and food processing. Willy K Bett, ambassador of the Republic of Kenya in India, spoke of a collaboration in organizing worldclass marathon with participation from people around the world. On April 18, Bett, while attending a welcome ceremony at a hotel in Kolkata had said, “Kenya and India have had a long history of relationship in trade, tourism and investment. There are four main areas in Kenya for investors to take interest in — universal healthcare, housing, manufacturing sector—especially textiles and leather— and food security. Kenya has experience in wildlife management and is willing to invest in that in Bengal. The relationship with Bengal needs to grow as we have much in common. Kenya is ready for investments and collaboration.” There were also representatives from the US, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Netherlands, Finland, Morocco, Bangladesh and Bhutan among other countries. The chief minister asked the South Korean representative to invest in electronics hub in the state and the New Zealand representative to join hands in promoting the dairy industry. “Representatives of KOTRA are already here, exploring the investment opportunities,” said the South Korean delegate. KOTRA is a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization operated by the South Korea government.
Source: Times of India
Textile Exchange has published the Certification Procedures for the Content Claim Standard (CCS) 3.0. Due to delays with the release of CCS 3.0 Certification Procedures, Textile Exchange is granting an extension period for brands that are pursuing new scope certificates. The new mandatory date for brand certification is April 1, 2023. The Certification Procedures is the document that certification bodies use to interpret the requirements of the standard. This extension has been written into the CCS 3.0 Certification Procedures and there is no action required on the brand side to take advantage of this extension, Textile Exchange said in a press release. Certification bodies will continue to accept new claim approval applications from direct suppliers up until March 31, 2023. After April 1, 2023, only certified brands may apply for claim approvals. Following a standard revision involving an International Working Group, Textile Exchange launched Version 3.0 of the CCS on June 29, 2021, with an effective date of July 1, 2021, and a mandatory date of July 1, 2022. One of the key updates to the standard is the adjustment of the scope of chain of custody. Under the CCS 2.0, product-related claims were only allowed if the entire supply chain up to the seller in the final business-to-business transaction was certified. In the CCS 3.0, product-related claims may only be made if chain of custody is in place up to the brand, regardless of the brand’s distribution model. This means brands were required to be certified by July 1, 2022, to make product-related claims, the release added. Due to delays with the release of CCS 3.0 Certification Procedures, the document certification bodies (CB) use to audit the standard, Textile Exchange is granting an extension period for brands that are pursuing new scope certificates. This extension has been written into the CCS 3.0 Certification Procedures and there is no action required on the brand side to take advantage of this extension.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
The World Bank expects Vietnam to enjoy the highest trade and income gains among Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members. In a latest report, the bank said the average trade weighted tariff imposed by Vietnam declined from 0.8 per cent to 0.2 per cent, while the tariffs faced by it reduced from 0.6 per cent to 0.1 per cent between 2000 and 2035. In the most optimistic scenario, where all benefits are applied, Vietnam has the highest gains of all RCEP member countries, Vietnam Briefing, an unit of Japan’s Dezan Shira & Associates, reported citing the World Bank document. Vietnam’s income levels will increase by 4.9 per cent relative to the baseline, higher than other countries, where the income level increases by 2.5 per cent. Trade will also increase the most in this scenario, with exports expanding by 11.4 per cent and imports by 9.2 per cent relative to the baseline, the report said. All RCEP member countries will see an increase in exports and imports. Vietnam’s exports will expand by 11.4 per cent and imports by 9.2 per cent. Sectors that recorded the highest growth include textile and garments, mainly due to the reduction of non-tariff measures. In the scenario where only the tariff reduction is implemented, the impact on Vietnam’s economy is negligible, with real income close to zero, the World Bank said. Trade will also witness a small reduction relative to the baseline, with both exports and imports declining by 0.3 per cent. It is attributed to the fact that Vietnam enjoys relatively low tax rates thanks to other free trade agreements. According to the report, RCEP also provides an opportunity to promote growth and support recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. RCEP will help Vietnam access consumer markets which is twice the size of the markets in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as RCEP includes China, the Republic of Korea and Japan. However, it required Vietnam to raise standards to meet higher demand and stiffer competition, the report said. Another advantage that RCEP brings to the country is that it is creating more equality in the job market because sectors that employ women are expanded, such as textiles, apparel, electronics and some service sectors. The wage of female workers will increase faster than that of male ones, especially in Vietnam.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Japan Mukhsinkhoja Abdurakhmonov recently met vice president of the latter’s YKK Corporation Makoto Nishizako to brief him about the investment potential and export opportunities of his country’s textile industry. Nishizako was keen on knowing about the production capacities of textile enterprises in Uzbekistan. He was also interested in the import of zippers and rivets and the logistics routes for products exported from and delivered to Uzbekistan. The envoy drew Nishizako’s attention to the fact that with the Cotton Campaign ending the global boycott of Uzbek cotton, world brands would be attracted to Uzbekistan, whose textile product exports will rise, according to a news agency. It was agreed by both sides to further elaborate joint proposals, including those received from YKK Corporation.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan urged the government to keep the supply of natural gas to the export-oriented garment and textile industries uninterrupted with adequate pressure to facilitate smooth production in factories. He made the call during a meeting with Engr Md Haronur Rashid Mullah, managing director of Titas Gas Transmission & Distribution Company Limited (TGTDCL) at Titas office in Dhaka on 20 April, read a press release. BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim and Director (Operation) of TGTDCL Engr Md Salim Miah were also present at the meeting. Faruque Hassan said interruption in gas supply will disrupt production in various industrial sectors, including spinning, weaving, finishing, dyeing and printing sections in the industrial belts of Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Ashulia, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Chattogram, hampering the export. He said after passing an unprecedented difficult time the apparel industry of Bangladesh is recovering from the pandemic fallout, and global buyers have grown more confident in Bangladeshi garment manufacturers' capacity and commitment to deliver shipments on time even amid the Covid-19 crisis. But factories will not be able to run in full capacity if gas is not supplied smoothly, making it difficult for the exporters to make shipment on time, he added. Given the importance of the industry, the BGMEA leaders urged Titas Gas Transmission & Distribution Company Limited to necessary steps to ensure smooth supply of gas to the apparel and textile industries.
Source: TBS News
