Lift export ban on protective gear, says Tirupur Inc

Tirupur: Apparel exporters have appealed the Centre to lift the ban on export of personal protective equipment (PPE) to benefit from the global demand.

Apparel Export Promotion Council has sent letters to minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and minister of textiles Smriti Irani seeking to lift the ban. “Countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan have lifted the ban on PPE export and are receiving huge orders. We are afraid of losing export markets to the competing countries. Production of PPE is more than sufficient to cater to the needs of the country and can be opened up for exports,” AEPC chairman A Sakthivel said. “India has scaled up PPE production from zero units to 8lakh units per day in less than four months.”

In a statement on Sunday, Sakthivel said Pakistan received $100 million export orders last week, while the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has launched Project Airbridge to quickly get 2.25 million PPEs from Vietnam.

“India is also part of the US initiative. We should not lose out on an attractive global business opportunity. The need of the hour is to initiate PPE exports,” he added.


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