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Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare apparel exports as essential services and exempt these exporting units from lockdowns across India.

"We request that the Central government should issue necessary instructions to all the state governments to declare apparel exports as essential services and exempt them from shutdown," AEPC Chairman A. Sakthivel wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister.

He noted that most of the apparel exports are season and fashion sensitive, and their salvage value becomes zero if the production and shipment are not done in time. Considering the perishable nature of the product, apparel exports should be seen as essential services, the Chairman said.

"Besides, many neighbouring and competing countries have already accorded apparel exports the status of essential services," he added.

Apparel exporters showed great resilience in getting back on track after being badly hit in 2020 with huge export order cancellations, bankruptcies and labourers going back to native places. Export orders from the US and Europe have revived but now the Indian apparel exporters face the danger of losing these to competing countries as the second wave of Covid-19 crisis has resulted in lockdowns in several states, the industry body said.

"Due to the lockdown, if the units are unable to execute these orders, this will result, not only in the short-term loss of orders and export earnings, but also a long-term loss of the buyers. Our competing countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan are making all efforts to take orders from these regions and if we lose our buyers at this point, they will not come back in the near future," said Sakthivel.

Earlier in the day, the council held a video conference meeting with buying houses and associations to discuss the second wave of pandemic. The AEPC Chairman requested the buying houses and agents to explain to the international clients that the situation in India is getting better by the day. He said that they should convince their clients not to cancel their orders as he believes India will bounce back by mid-June.

The chairman also requested the Prime Minister to urgently intervene and save lives, livelihoods and prevent major financial losses for apparel exporters, especially in the MSME segment. The letter has also been shared with Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Textiles Minister Smriti Zubin Irani.