India doubles tax on textiles in a bid to throttle Chinese imports
It’s the second tax hike on textiles in as many months after an increase on other products including fibre and apparel in July
New Delhi/Mumbai — India doubled the import tax on more than 300 textile products to 20% on Tuesday as the world’s biggest producer of cotton tries to curb rising imports from China. It was the second tax hike on textiles in as many months after an increase on other products including fibre and apparel in July. The moves are expected to provide relief to the domestic textile industry, which has been hit by cheaper imports. India’s total textile imports jumped 16% to $7bn in the financial year to March 2018. Of this, about $3bn was from China. The government did not disclose details of the 328 textile products that will be subject to the duty increase. Rising imports sent India’s trade deficit with China in textile products to a record high $1.54bn in 2017-18, alarming industry officials as India had been until recently a net exporter of textile products to China.
Sanjay Jain, president of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said he did not expect China to retaliate t...
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