Implementation of the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) from July 15 is expected to trigger fresh investments in the Indian textile industry.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said the agreement is expected to unlock substantial opportunities for the Indian apparel sector by providing duty-free market access and enhancing the competitiveness of Indian products in one of the world’s largest and most discerning consumer markets.

A. Sakthivel, its chairman, said the FTA has the potential to substantially increase India’s apparel exports to the U.K., attract fresh investments, generate large-scale employment and strengthen India’s integration with global value chains.

The UK is among India’s most important apparel export destinations, with considerable untapped potential. The duty-free access secured under the agreement is expected to improve price competitiveness, facilitate deeper market penetration and enable Indian exporters to secure a larger share of the U.K.’s apparel imports.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) said the U.K. is one of the largest markets for Indian textile and apparel products. Its chairman Ashwin Chandran said India’s textile and apparel exporters, until now, had to contend with a duty handicap compared with competitors like Bangladesh in the highly promising U.K. market. “The India-UK CETA [Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement] will change that, providing us with a level-playing field so that our products can find more willing buyers as they can now be priced more attractively relative to competition. The agreement will enable our companies to significantly improve their market share not only in the top product categories of the U.K.’s textile and apparel imports but across the broader textile and apparel segment as well,” he said.

“Ultimately, the extent to which companies can derive gains from any trade deal will depend on how prepared they are to do so. Trade deals open doors, but companies will need to walk through those,” he added.