India’s apparel exports, which help stock the shelves of major US retailers, currently face 10% tariffs in America. The looming threat of tariff escalations has set off a fresh scramble across labour-intensive sectors even as India’s merchandise exports posted a sharp recovery in August.
Apparel exporters are rushing to close Spring 2027 orders and pull forward shipments, while resisting pressure from US buyers for price cuts. Spring orders are typically shipped in January-February, but many exporters have already received orders and production is underway, allowing some shipments to be accelerated.
Exporters are keen to send the orders as the overall apparel exports have fallen 9.10% in the first five months of the current fiscal to $6,149.66 million from the same period last year.
India’s merchandise exports during April -August of FY27 stood at $215.91 billion, a compaed to $183.21 billion in the same period of FY26, registering a growth of 17.85 per cent.
“We are seeing some acceleration of Spring shipments as US brands and importers look to reduce their exposure to a potential tariff increase,” said Sanjay Jain, group CEO, PDS Ltd.
The trade is already drawing on lessons from last year’s tariff shock.
“We had seen earlier that goods that left India before August 27, 2025 and were cleared in the US before September 17, 2025 did not face any additional duty,” said Sanjay Jain, chairman of the ICC Textile Panel and managing director of TT Ltd. He said the proposed tariff also had to be seen in the context of the ongoing India-US trade negotiations.