By Seshadri Ramkumar,
Texas Tech University, USA
The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appealed to the Indian Prime Minister to allow surplus cotton export under Open General License only from 1 January 2012. Recently India has lifted cotton export restrictions for the remaining two months of the current season ending in September 2011.
On August 2, Mr. J. Thulasidharan, chairman of the Coimbatore based SIMA appealed to the Prime Minister to ensure a level playing field for the Indian cotton spinning sector before taking any long term decision on allowing cotton exports under Open General License.
In his statement he insisted the need for a closing stock of at least two and half months for the Indian cotton spinning industry to be competitive against other exporting countries. Commenting that the China Cotton Reserve Corporation protects the Chinese spinning sector by not permitting any external agency to trade Chinese cotton directly, he has pleaded the Government to take care of the Indian cotton textile industry which provides direct and indirect employment to 90 million people in India. He has also pleaded the Government to provide facilities for hedging and create policies to maintain price stability.
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