As Exports To US Triple In A Year, India In Race To Be Next China
India, which many people think has the potential to overtake China as the world’s largest exporter, is now among the top five countries sending t-shirts and holiday decorations to the US.
According to US customs data, seaborne exports of festival items and accessories to America reached $20 million last month, nearly tripling the value from the same time last year. With purchasers diversifying their supply sources in response to growing labour costs and disruptions from China’s rigorous Covid-zero policy, India emerged as the obvious winner over the Philippines in this process.
Amit Malhotra, whose Asian Handicrafts Pvt. sells holiday decorations to major corporations including the Walt Disney Co., London’s Harrods, Target Corp., and Dillard’s Inc., is one of the recipients of the early Christmas gift. He acknowledged that orders are up 20% from a year ago and that he has increased production capacity.
The craze is not just for Christmas products. The third-largest economy in Asia has experienced a sharp rise in orders from the US and Europe, with the move concentrated in labor-intensive, low-cost industries including garments, handicrafts, and non-electronic consumer products. While supply chain diversification started as a result of the US-China trade war in 2018, India hadn’t made any significant progress at the time as nations like Vietnam had monopolised the majority of the orders that were shifting away from Beijing.
In order to be among the top 5 suppliers of cotton t-shirts to the US this year, India also managed to overtake El Salvador.
The historical problems with contract enforcements, tax transparency, etc., are the major problems, according to Oxford Economics analyst Priyanka Kishore. For India to fully realise its potential as a manufacturing centre, these issues must be resolved because they do provide a hindrance to its manufacturing objectives.
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