Our Bureau
Chennai
On Wednesday, 6th August, the President of the United States, Donald Trump announced that he will be putting on an additional 25% tariffs on India as a penalty for their decision to continue the import of crude oil from Russia. Now with the new import duties the top retailers of the US have started to strategize alongside Indian textile exporters their next plan of action.
Earlier, President Trump had announced a 25% tariff rate on Indian goods which had already shaken up the Indian exporters but now with the doubling up of these rates, the exporters are in heavy distress. With these revised rates, the overall import duties would even exceed 50% in certain Indian products. For example, knitted apparel could face a duty of 64%, while woven apparel would attract 60.3%, these rates would be catastrophic for the Indian exporters.
An exporter based in Tiruppur who has been operating since 2002 revealed the tragic impact these tariffs have caused on his business. His order of cotton T-shirts and dresses that was worth around $80,000 (Rs. 70,07,806) was cancelled because of the higher import duties.
“My US buyer asked me to stop a shipment of cotton T-shirts and dresses worth $80,000, as it was not possible to pass the extra costs on to their clients… They want us to lower the price,” the exporter said on condition of anonymity, citing business concerns.
The exporters even revealed that some buyers are also planning to increase end-retail prices, which could end up reducing the demand of exports. But they have stated that a 50% increase in import duties is not sustainable at all. These imposed duties will be imposed later in the month from August 27th.
