Colombia zeroes import duty on 60 textile items to fight inflation

Citing the ‘Commercial Report, March 2022’ of Embassy of India, Colombia, The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) said that the Colombian government had announced the removal of duty in March. Sharing the information with the industry, SRTEPC has asked its members to explore the opportunity to enhance India’s textile exports to Colombia.

As per the information provided by Embassy of India (EOI), Bogota, the Colombian government has removed import duty on textile items that fall under HS codes 50 to 58 and 60.

Colombia and other Latin American countries are struggling with high rate of inflation caused due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN had said recently, adding that high inflation is pushing large section of population into poverty. Colombian government has taken various steps including the removal of duty on various essential goods to control inflation and poverty.

According to data from Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro, Colombia had imported textile items worth $1.228 billion in April 2021-March 2022, which comprised 53.72 per cent fabric, 39.27 per cent yarn and 7.01 per cent fibre. The country imported home textiles worth $110.215 million in the same period. Flooring and carpet import was 17.07 per cent. Colombia imported apparel worth $475.426 million in the same period.

Colombia exported apparel worth $399.093 million and home textiles worth $61.103 million during 12 months to March 2022, as per TexPro. This shows that the government also wants to push domestic textile industry so that the country can boost its economy by promoting export of finished textile items.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)