Indian textile industry must dig deep to survive US tariff shock
The US is India’s biggest textile and apparel export market, and the tariffs threaten millions of jobs and tens of thousands of factories
Trump’s astounding tariffs not only threaten the successful 25-year-old trade partnership between the two countries but are also becoming a defining moment for India’s textiles, posing an existential threat to many manufacturers in an industry that was once the most promising in terms of growth.
One of the country’s oldest industries, providing direct employment to at least 45 million people, India’s textiles sector is closely linked to its agriculture. Much of the sector is known for its fine cotton exports, with India being one of the world’s largest cotton producers. The textile market was set to achieve a revenue of US$350 billion by 2030, doubling its contribution to gross domestic product from 2.3 per cent to about 5 per cent.
The untimely tariffs, however, have inflicted considerable pain on this growth story. According to the Global Trade Research Initiative, India’s textile exports to the US could plunge by as much as 70 per cent.