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Message from Shri P.R. Aqeel Ahmed, Vice-Chairman, Council for Leather Exports

aqeel-ahmed1

Europe and USA have been the traditional markets for the Indian leather industry.  About 68% of our exports are directed to these traditional markets. I feel that early conclusion of India – EU Trade and Investment Agreement with zero duty facility for export of leather, leather products and footwear will help in substantially enhancing our exports to Europe. Similarly, we need to have a Free Trade Agreement with USA as well to tap the huge potential in the US market, as USA is the largest importing country of leather, leather products and footwear in the world.

Even as we are trying to consolidate and expand our market share in the traditional markets, the leather industry has undertaken a slew of market diversification efforts as well in the recent years.

Markets like Russia, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, Latin America, Africa and the CIS region are potential markets where we need to concentrate in order to achieve our objective of double digit export growth levels in the coming years. CLE too has been undertaking aggressive marketing efforts in many of these potential markets.  Here again, the Government of India is negotiating a trade agreement with Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) comprising countries namely Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Besides, trade agreement negotiations are also going on with Canada and Australia. We already have Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Japan and Korea. We have requested Government of India to take up the issue of bringing down the import duty levels in Japan for footwear to zero. Korea already has either Nil or very low duty levels for leather products and footwear.

I hope that conclusion of the various ongoing negotiations on trade agreements with Europe, EAEU, Australia etc., and will help in substantially enhancing our market presence in both traditional and potential markets.


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