Growth Prospects for India's Cotton and Textile Industries

by Maurice Landes, Stephen MacDonald, Santosh K. Singh, and Thomas Vollrath

India's prospects are changing now that the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) no longer governs world textile trade. Decades of industrial policies that were both inward-oriented and biased toward small-scale production continue to influence India's textile trade prospects. While the recent introduction of genetically-modified (Bt) cotton has revitalized prospects for cotton production, quality issues are likely to hamper Indian cotton sales until the structure of India's cotton marketing system changes significantly.

Keywords: cotton, India, textiles, clothing, apparel, Multifiber Arrangement, synthetic fiber, spinning, weaving, China, trade policy, policy reform, seed varieties, fiber quality

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