The signing of the India-EFTA Agreement can catalyze the Growth of the Indian Textile Industry in strategic sectors: CITI

NEW DELHI : Confederation of Indian Textile Industry’s (CITI) Chairman, Shri Rakesh Mehra congratulated the Government for signing the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members.

“To have a level playing field against our competitors, the Indian Textile Industry had been continuously requesting the signing of FTAs with major Textile & Apparel Market. Textile Industry is happy to note that under the leadership of Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce & Industries, Shri Piyush Goyal, India has recently signed several trade agreements including India-UAE CEPA, and India-Australia ECTA. The upcoming India-EFTA agreement, will further catalyze the growth of the Indian Textile Industry, especially in terms of critical inputs, technology, and product development opportunities,” said Shri Mehra.

He further said that while the EFTA members which include Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland is an important trade bloc for the Indian Textile Industry, CITI had been requesting the Government to expedite the signing of FTA with Switzerland as both India and Switzerland complement the needs of each other in the T&A space as India imports Technology and Machines from Switzerland while Switzerland offers itself as a buyer for raw materials and intermediate products, to be converted into high-quality and sustainable end products.

He further informed that in this regard CITI and Swiss Textiles, which is one the important National Associations of T&A in Switzerland, signed an MoU in November 2023 intending to promote bilateral trade and investment as also engage for more product-specific B2B interactions’ knowledge sharing, & capacity building, etc. based on the respective core competencies of both the countries.