Will India-Japan CEPA review increase textile trade?

Goyal has indicated that he will push Nishimura Yasutosh, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry to review the trade deal. Goyal was asked by reporters during his visit to Los Angeles if a review of the trade deal with Japan is on the cards, to which he replied, “I think that’s quite long overdue, and I am going to raise that issue with my counterpart from Japan. He has just taken over some time back as a new minister. So, I will be taking up that issue.”

Normally, during a review of any existing trade agreement, the signatory countries seek more market access for their respective domestic products and resolve issues which are creating hurdles in trade.

As far as textiles is concerned, the CEPA did not work for India in the last one decade. India could not breach even one per cent market share in Japan’s garment imports. According to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro, India exported garments of $225.875 million in 2021, which was mere 0.95 per cent of total garment imports of $23,804 billion by Japan. Japan remained over dependent on China with 58.39 per cent ($13.878 billion) garment imports. Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Italy, Myanmar and Thailand were ahead of India in terms of garment exports to Japan. India could supply only 1.63 per cent of home textiles to Japan, out of its total import of $5.307 billion. India’s export of textile products like yarn, fabrics and fibre was also negligible.

Some trade experts, however, feel that Indian exporters are unable to meet quality standards of Japanese buyers, which is the core issue.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)