Opinion India has shown flexibility on cotton imports. It’s for US to reciprocate

India has allowed cotton imports at zero duty till December 31, 2025. The “temporary” exemption from the earlier chargeable 11 per cent tariff comes amid domestic production of the fibre falling to an estimated 311.4 lakh bales (lb) in 2024-25 (October-September), from 336.5 lb in the previous marketing year and the all-time-high of 398 lb of 2013-14. But it’s not just lower output — compounded by a 2.6 per cent dip in the area sown this kharif season — that may have prompted the Narendra Modi government’s decision. No less significant is the signal it sends out to the United States that has seen the value of its cotton exports slide from $8.82 billion in 2022 to $4.96 billion in 2024, largely because of reduced purchases by China (from $2.79 billion to $1.47 billion). With China further slashing imports to a mere $150.4 million in January-June 2025, it means a huge loss of market.

No wonder the US wants other countries to buy more. Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey and India have all done that. India alone has imported $181.5 million worth of US cotton in January-June, as against $86.9 million during the first half of 2024. The duty removal is likely to give an added boost to that. The US Department of Agriculture has, indeed, welcomed the move. It sees this as not only increasing US cotton bookings, but also helping Indian textile exporters access cheaper and contamination-free fibre. Nearly 95 per cent of imported US cotton, the agency claims, is processed and re-exported as yarn, fabric and apparel. But it is the optics, more than anything else, in the context of a low moment for Delhi-Washington ties, that’s encouraging. Not reviving the stalled trade talks is in neither side’s interest. By making cotton imports duty-free, augmenting availability of fibre for its textile industry, India has shown willingness and flexibility to negotiate. It’s for the US now to reciprocate, by scrapping the unreasonable and irrational 25 per cent Russian oil import “penalty” on India.

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There’s a loser in all this, though. The Indian cotton farmer has been deprived of any new cropping technology after genetically modified Bt hybrids, which drove up average lint yields from 302 kg to 566 kg per hectare between 2002-03 and 2013-14. Since then, yields have dropped to sub-450 kg levels, even as cotton has become susceptible to so-called secondary pests such as pink bollworm and whitefly in addition to boll rot fungal pathogens. The results of non-investment in breeding research and development are evident from record imports of 39 lb projected for 2024-25. This double-whammy situation, of technology denial alongside import inundation, has been witnessed even in mustard and soyabean. The Indian farmer can — and should be enabled to — compete, but not with hands tied.