The July edition of National Garment Fair will be held in Mumbai from July 15 to 18, 2019. Some 882 exhibitors will showcase their latest festive collections. The fair will display leading brands in men’s wear, women’s wear, children’s wear and accessories. About 50,000 retailers and trade visitors from all over India are expected to visit the fair. This B2B fair will be open only to trade visitors and garment retailers. There will be business networking sessions between exhibitors and agents and distributors.

The biggest problem facing Indian garment manufacturers today is the unrestricted duty free imports from Bangladesh and the back door entry of Chinese fabrics via Bangladesh. India has an FTA with Bangladesh, whereby garments can be exported without any duty payment of duty into India. In the absence of any rules of origin, Bangladesh manufacturers import duty-free fabrics from China, convert them to garments, and export to India – thereby virtually providing duty free access to Indian markets for Chinese fabrics. Imports of garments from Bangladesh have been growing at the rate of 82 per cent over last year, and 161 per cent over 2016-17. Ironically, exports of garments from India to Bangladesh are subject to a net duty of almost 125 per cent.