CITI Welcomes FTA With European Free Trade Association Nations
The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has welcomed signing of the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.
EFTA members include Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland which are an important trade bloc for the Indian textile industry.
“CITI had been requesting the government to expedite signing of FTA as both India and Switzerland complement the needs of each other in the textile and apparel space,” CITI Chairman Rakesh Mehra said.
“India imports textile technologies from Switzerland while Switzerland offers itself as a buyer of raw materials and intermediate products, to be converted into high-quality and sustainable end products,” he added.
“To have a level playing field against our competitors, the Indian textile industry has been continuously requesting the signing of FTAs with major textile and clothing markets,” Mehra stated.
Mehra added that the textile industry is happy to note that under the leadership of Piyush Goyal, India has recently signed several trade agreements including India-UAE CEPA, and India-Australia ECTA.
“The India-EFTA agreement will further catalyse the growth of the Indian textile industry, especially in terms of critical inputs, technology, and product development opportunities,” Mehra informed.
CITI and Swiss Textiles, a Swiss textile trade body signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2023 to promote bilateral trade and investment.
The MoU also seeks to engage for more product-specific B2B interactions, knowledge sharing and capacity building based on the respective core competencies of both the countries.
