| |
India:Apparel export firms do the vanishing trick as textile quotas go |
|
2004-9-6
|
 |
Apparel export firms are putting up disappearing act, and figures say all.
About 33,000 apparel export firms were registered with the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) about five years ago, the numbers are down to around 22,000 at present.
Indications are that the number is to dwindle further to around 2,500-odd apparel-exporting firms by January next year, when the quota regime in the global trade in textiles and clothing is completely phased out.
This is no case of fear from Chinese apparel manufacturers forcing Indian exporters to close shop, but the fact that these Indian firms were were opened merely for bagging quotas.
Now with the changed scenario from January, 2005 when the textile quota regime get phased out, basic purpose is lost and hence, exporters are winding them up, an Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) official said.
It is understood that cases of a single exporter opening up to 100-150 firms just to bag the quotas have come to light.
"Opening up a number of firms has been necessitated by the Government''s quota allocation policy of distributing export entitlements on a first-come-first-served basis. The units being operated by each exporter would, thereby, get distributed between the firms," a leading exporter said.
Now, with the dismantaling of the quota system, a number of firms are closing and even new ones have stopped registering them with AEPC, he said.
With fewer firms vying for quotas in the run-up to the dismantling of the quota regime, India''s utilisation of quota during the first four months of the calendar year has also slowed. According to AEPC figures, during the period January-April 2004, the utilisation of quota was down by 13.80 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
浙公網安33010602010414
