India can take advantage
COIMBATORE: India has the potential to take advantage of the advances in value-added technical textiles, which account for more than 40 percent of total textile manufacturing activities of developing countries, Minister of State for Textiles, E V K S Elangovan said.

India accounts for about six percent of the $ 107 billion global technical textiles market and this figure is expected to reach nine billion dollars by 2007-08, he said.
Elangovan was speaking after inaugurating the three-day first international collaborative conference on 'Advances in fibrous materials, non-woven and technical textiles.'
An expert committee on technical textiles was constituted to draw the road map and deliberate on various related issues and to suggest measures for its implementation in a time-bound manner, he said.

Similarly, to accelerate the growth of technical textiles, the Government has designated SASMIR (Silk And Synthetic Manufacturing and Industrial Research Association), as the nodal agency and entrusted it with the task of assessing application areas, vis-a-vis market development, creating awareness and giving back-up Research and Development support and testing facilities to the industry, Elangovan said.

"Though the Indian textile industry has a strong base in terms of expertise, manpower and material availability, available resources, for various reasons, have not been fully exploited and updated with changing trends in application of textiles with particularly reference to technical textiles," he said.

Cotton production to rise
MUMBAI: After the sufficient rain this year, farmers are expecting more cotton production and anticipating around 45-50 lakh bales exports against 33 lakh bales targeted by Cotton Advisory Board (CAB).

Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the major cotton growing states and all these regions have witnessed satisfactory rainfall.

In current year approximately 270 lakh bales of cotton production estimated, informed East India Cotton Association (EICA) President K F Jhunjhunwala.

CAB has estimated 244 lakh bales of production for current season and expects exports of 75 lakh bale in next season, Jhunjhunwala stated.

He also informed that land under Bt cotton will increase to 32 lakh hectare from current 13 lakh.

EU trade chief invited to G20 summit
BRUSSELS: Europe's trade chief has received an invitation from Brazil to attend a summit of developing states as the first bid to revive stalled world trade talks after their collapse in July, an official said on Monday.

The G20 group, led by India and Brazil, hopes to discuss ways to convince developed nations to conclude the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, suspended last month after major powers failed to broker an agriculture deal.

The developing country alliance planned to hold what was billed as a "stock-taking summit" in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 9 and 10, to which Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim had invited EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, said the official at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.

"Assuming a strong (WTO) ministerial presence, he will attend," the official told Reuters. The Commission negotiates foreign trade policy on behalf of the 25-country bloc.
"(Mandelson has said) that it's an important opportunity to discuss and review the next steps towards a revival of the negotiations," he said, adding that the G20 may have also issued a similar invitation to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy was forced to suspend the Doha Round, named after the Qatari capital where it began in 2001, saying there was no hope of meeting an end-year deadline for a deal.

The round has been billed as a once-in-a-generation chance to inject up to $300 billion a year into the world economy and lift millions out of poverty. It was already well behind schedule when the talks collapsed in Geneva.

Mandelson has said the Doha Round will remain a central priority of European Union trade policy, promising that the bloc will push for measures to help developing countries regardless of the delay in the negotiations.

No CEPA with Sri Lanka
NEW DELHI: India has warned Sri Lanka that it will not proceed with the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) until Sri Lanka puts a check on its copper, pepper and vanaspati exports to the country.

The Indian market has been flooded with the three commodities, which are duty free under the bilateral free trade agreement.

According to an official, India has asked Sri Lanka to impose voluntary restrictions on these exports but Sri Lanka is unwilling to oblige.

“In our recent meeting with Sri Lankan officials in New Delhi, we took up the issue of checking import surges. The Sri Lankans did not look keen to abide by our suggestion of imposing voluntary restrictions,” he said.

The official added that India has firmly told Sri Lanka that a solution has to be found before India could proceed with the CEPA negotiations.

Earlier this year, haggling over the negative list had pushed back trade talks between India and Sri Lanka on liberalising its service sectors.

Senior officials pointed out, “There are a few nagging issues like exports of vansapati oil that we are unable to iron out at the trade level. They have to be taken up at the political level before CEPA talks can make headway.”

India is currently Sri Lanka’s third largest export market, with $1.45 billion in bilateral trade. India is also the island’s fourth largest investor, with investments of over $450 million. But a surge in duty free exports of sensitive products has both the sides riled. Sri Lankan exports of Vanaspati has doubled to 2,00,000 metric tonnes in 2005, from less than 1.00,000 metric tonnes the year before.

India wants vanaspati exports capped at 1,00,000 metric tonne, which Sri Lanka says it cannot do. Sri Lanka had voluntarily agreed to cap exports at 2,50,000 metric tonnes in 2003, and recently imposed a $30 a tonne levy on raw material imported into the island for processing and re-export as vansapati.
However, according to officials, they have not respected the export cap.

“We need to have quantitative restrictions, but there are huge investments that have already been made in this sector on the basis of what was agreed.”