Indian textile exporters halt US orders amid doubled tariff impact

Indian textile and apparel exporters from Tiruppur, Noida and Surat will put on hold their manufacturing of US orders after US president Donald Trump doubled the tariff to 50% on Wednesday, as they say uncertainty has increased manifolds.

The revised tariff has reduced the competitiveness of the Indian textile and apparel sector in comparison to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, whose tariffs are much less than India. The tariff for Bangladesh is 20%, 19% for Indonesia and Cambodia, and 20% for Vietnam.

A Sakthivel, chairman of Tiruppur Exporters Association, said Indian exporters have decided to stop manufacturing the orders for the US. “The increased tariff will definitely impact the textile and apparel exports for the next 30-40 days till such time that India works out a favourable Bilateral Trade Agreement with the US," he said.


Sanjay Jain, past president, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), said for the time being, it is curtains down for textile exports. “New orders will not come. Old orders will have to be shipped at a loss. We will see a lot of unemployment in labour intensive sectors like textile and leather,” he said.

Currently, China is the biggest exporter of textiles and apparel items to the US, followed by Vietnam, India and Bangladesh.

“The doubling of US tariff is a huge setback for India’s textile and apparel exporters as it has further complicated the challenging situation we were already grappling with and will significantly weaken our ability to compete effectively vis-à-vis many other countries for a larger share of the US market,” said Rakesh Mehra, chairman of CITI.

The US is India’s largest market for textile and apparel exports. India’s garment and textile exports to the US fell for the third consecutive month in June, despite increasing 3.3% year-on-year, CITI said on Wednesday, citing data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel, which is part of the International Trade Administration of the United States.

This is in sharp contrast to a 15-25% year-on-year growth in India’s textile and apparel exports to the US in the first three months of 2025. However, with the announcement of tariffs in April, trade started declining. In contrast, Vietnam and Bangladesh saw an increase in garment and textile exports during the month of June, with a 26.2% and 44.6% year-on-year surge, respectively.