Merchants and producers in Panipat, India’s largest textile recycling hub that receives discarded clothes from a number of nations for recycling and resale, have raised issues over the suspension of shipments from Bangladesh, the highest supply of rags for recycling in India, The Indian Categorical has learnt.
“Rags and recycled objects weren’t a part of the restriction on clothes by means of the land border route that the federal government introduced in Could. Merchants in Panipat are complaining that the shipments from Bangladesh have been halted however it’s unclear why this step has been taken,” an individual conscious of the event stated.
Whereas merchants plan to lift the difficulty with the federal government, they continue to be not sure concerning the motive for the halt in exports. However the improvement comes amid heightened commerce tensions between India and Bangladesh after Dhaka’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus known as for the extension of the Chinese language economic system across the strategically vital North-East India area.
This assumes significance as over 200 tonnes of rags are recycled in Panipat day by day, with 150-200 mills working within the sector. Their key sources of rags embody discarded clothes from Western nations, however Bangla-desh alone generates over 0.5 million metric tonnes of textile waste from its factories annually.
The suspension of exports of rags and textile waste coincides with Bangladesh makes an attempt at looking for Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) standing within the European Union, which might end result within the removing of tariffs on over 66 per cent of EU tariff strains. The EU is one among Bangladesh’s largest export markets, however the nation is about to lose concessions in 2026 after graduating from the Least Developed Nation (LDC) standing.
To qualify for the GSP+ scheme, Bangladesh should improve its home recycling capabilities and meet particular situations associated to labour rights and governance.
In response to information company Reuters, elevated native recycling may save Bangladesh round $700 million yearly in import prices, as a number of nations, together with India, ramp up their textile recycling capacities. India recycles or reuses roughly 4.7 million tonnes, or about 60 per cent, of its textile waste.
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Political and financial tensions between India and its largest commerce accomplice in South Asia have been rising, particularly because the Union authorities in Could imposed a collection of import restrictions on items from Bangladesh, notably on ready-made clothes, the nation’s largest export merchandise and a key supply of overseas change.
This adopted earlier indicators of deteriorating ties, together with New Delhi’s resolution in April to terminate the five-year-old transhipment facility for Bangladesh’s export cargo – a mechanism that enabled Dhaka to ship items to a number of Western nations utilizing Indian land routes and airports.
Notably, Bangladesh additionally imposed port restrictions on Indian yarn exports through land ports, permitting such exports solely by means of seaports. This transfer, an official stated, was ostensibly in response to calls for from Bangladeshi textile mills – even if the land route gives the quickest and most cost-effective yarn provide to the ready-made clothes trade in Bangladesh.
Yarn exports to Bangladesh account for 20 per cent of India’s complete exports to the nation, which had been valued at $11.38 billion in FY25. Official information confirmed that cotton yarn and handloom product exports to Dhaka stood at $2.39 billion over the past monetary yr. In the meantime, India imports ready-made clothes from Bangladesh valued at over $700 million yearly.
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