The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) warmly welcomes the announcement of the Resilience & Logistics Intervention for Export Facilitation (RELIEF) scheme under the Export Promotion Mission to alleviate the challenges faced by exporters due to the ongoing turbulence in West Asia.

“The announcement is a strong manifestation of the Government’s deep commitment to improving the ease of doing business for Indian exporters,” CITI Chairman Shri Ashwin Chandran said.

“Amid the continuing global volatility exacerbated by the developments in West Asia, the RELIEF scheme will offer a dose of relief to the MSME-dominated textiles and apparel sector, for whom FY26 has already proved to be hugely challenging,” the CITI Chairman added.

Shri Chandran said that CITI remains hopeful that the package announced under RELIEF will be implemented quickly to benefit exporters in the textiles and apparel arena. A significant portion of India’s textile and apparel exports is headed towards West Asia. The UAE is one of the largest markets for Indian textile and apparel exporters in West Asia. In 2024, the UAE was the 4th-largest market for India's textile and apparel exports, after the US, the EU, and Bangladesh.

The developments in West Asia have compounded difficulties for textiles and apparel exporters since they operate under narrow margins. Any increase in the cost of logistics and insurance adds to their challenges by significantly raising operating costs and affecting their ability to meet contractual obligations.

The textiles and apparel sector is the second-largest employer in India and a major contributor to national GDP and exports. Textiles and apparel exports were severely impacted in the second half of 2025 due to the steep 50% US tariff on Indian goods, which was in place from late August 2025 to early February 2026.

As per a CITI Analysis, India’s textiles exports declined 0.31% in February 2026 compared to the same period last year. Apparel exports fell 8.60% during the same period.