Textiles, pharma, engineering to get major boost from India-EU FTA: Exporters

Key Highlights

• The free trade agreement (FTA) would provide a stable and predictable framework for exporters, allowing Indian firms to plan long-term investments, integrate into European value chains, and secure market access, even as global economic uncertainties persist, they noted.
• “This FTA will be a game changer in terms of reducing our dependence on any single market,” Apparel Export Promotion Council Chairman A Sakthivel said, adding that with the US tariffs on Indian goods being too high, domestic exporters face higher costs and reduced competitiveness in a major market, which is pushing Indian exporters to diversify the export market.
• Successive negotiations have emphasised sectors where India has a strong export footprint in the EU.
• Textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, petroleum products and chemicals are central to these discussions, he added.
• Textiles and apparel currently attract 12-16 per cent import duty in the EU, which makes Indian goods less competitive.