Ludhiana: World Bank’s policies are ruining the country’s textile industry

Ludhiana: India’s garment exports are continuously declining as compared to 2017. Members of the World MSME Forum have alleged that the World Bank has deliberately adopted a discriminatory policy against India, which has led to this decline. Members of the World MSME Forum alleged that India’s garment exports declined from US $ 15.7 billion to US $ 14.51 billion in the year 2017. Textile exports have also declined by 11.69 percent from US $ 16.24 billion to US $ 14.34 billion in the last five years. At the same time, the demand for garments and textiles in the world market is growing at the rate of 12.3 percent, but the decline in the country’s exports makes it clear that the World Bank has deliberately adopted a discriminatory policy against India.

World MSME Forum President Badish Jindal said that due to these policies, while India’s exports are declining, imports are increasing rapidly. He said India’s textile and apparel imports grew 25.46 per cent in these five years from US$ 7.32 billion to US$ 9.18 billion. Jindal said, “Bangladesh is rated as a least developed country by the World Bank, due to which importers from Bangladesh get customs duty exemption. To ‘qualify’ as a least developed economy, a country’s per capita gross national income should be less than US$ 1,274. Now, Bangladesh’s per capita GNI is US$ 2,860 while India’s is US$ 2,540.

Bangladesh had achieved the least developed economy status in 2016 itself, but still the World Bank is ‘granting’ this status to Bangladesh till 2027.” Expressing similar views, Rahul Agarwal, secretary of World MSME Forum, said Bangladesh, which exported garments worth USD 25.8 billion in 2017, has now captured 8 per cent of the global market by exporting garments worth USD 47 billion. “Under WTO rules, Pakistan and Vietnam are given the benefit of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) by the USA, UK and EU. Due to this situation, Pakistan has increased its garment and textile exports from USD 5 billion to USD 14.5 billion in the last 6 years. This policy is preventing importers from buying products made in India. Due to this behaviour, India’s exports have suffered badly,” Agarwal said. Jindal said that unemployment rate has increased in India due to such policies of the World Bank.