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LEADING exporters of textiles and yarn are confident that the country's
exports of textiles products may achieve a minimum of 15 per cent growth following the simplification of export procedures and removal of
quantitative restrictions as announced by the Union Commerce Minister in his five-year Exim policy (2002-07).
Welcoming the policy, Mr Pramod Modi, Chairman of International Trade Committee of the Chamber of Textile Trade and Industry (COTTI), said
here on Monday that India had scope to emerge as a major player in the international textile market provided the State Governments took
necessary steps to set up special economic zones (SEZs) with backup support of offshore banking units there.
Mr Modi said that the bringing down of transaction cost through procedural simplification would now make Indian textile products and
yarn more competitive vis-à-vis China and Pakistan in the South-East Asian market.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Government is actively considering revoking the ban on import of yarn from India through land ports considering the
plight of garment exporters.
In a meeting with representatives of Bangladeshi garment manufacturers and exporters, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh, Mr M. Saifur
Rahaman, is understood to have assured them of considering the withdrawal of the ban on import of yarn against back-to-back letter of
credit (LC).
According to local textile trade sources, a high-level delegation of Bangladeshi garment exporters met Mr Rahaman urging him to lift the ban
for the greater interest of the readymade garment (RMG) sector, the largest foreign currency earner of Bangladesh. The delegation
highlighted that the ban on import through land ports would serious affect the RMG sector, as shipment of raw materials (yarn) through sea
ports would take much longer, forcing the lead-time for export to be increased.
The Minister is reported to have told the delegation that the withdrawal, if approved, would only apply to garment export but
otherwise, the ban on commercial import of yarn through land port would remain in place. It may be mentioned that the ban on import of yarn
from India through all land ports was imposed with effect from March 11, 2002 through a statutory regulatory order (SRO) by the National
Board of Revenue and the ban came in response to complaints by the Bangladesh Textile Mills' Association (BTMA), a platform of private
textile mills, that huge quantities of local yarn remained unsold due to "cheaper, low-quality" yarn imported from neighbouring India. BTMA
also blamed India for dumping its products on to the local market at cheaper rates.
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