Recently, some members of the WTO have continued to intensify their accusations against India’s textile export subsidies. The European Union and Japan joined the United States and Turkey in jointly demanding that India stop providing new subsidies to its textile industry and gradually eliminate existing export subsidies. But India insists that many of the so-called “subsidies” cited by the United States and other members are not actually subsidies but refunds of input taxes. India noted that the nature of the measures must be defined before phasing them out.
At a recent meeting of the WTO Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the United States expressed concern about Indian media reports on new subsidies to the textile industry, while Turkey believed that India’s export subsidies caused unfair competition to the Turkish textile industry. , Japan and the European Union also expressed concerns about this.
The textile industry is the industry that provides the most employment opportunities in India and is very important to India’s economic growth. In the context of the current global economic downturn and declining demand, the Indian government has given some incentives to its textile exporters. The WTO allows members with an annual per capita income of less than US$1,000 to provide export subsidies if the share of exports of the product in global trade is less than 3.25%, while India’s textile exports account for nearly 4% of global textile trade.
