The matter was sorted out after a high-level delegation from the textiles ministry, which represented India at a WTO meet in Geneva last week, called on the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) section of the WTO to look into the delay in the phase-out process, sources in the textiles ministry said.

They said the phase-out of the textile visa requirements for several of these quota categories of apparel items should have been completed by January itself within the WTO.

Apparel exports to US comprise one of the largest constituents of gross apparel exports from India. Apparel exports to US for the first half of the current calendar year have touched $824 million marking a jump of as much as 14 per cent in dollar terms.

For the month of June alone, exports to US have touchedabout $146.8 million comprising of restricted items, non-restricted items as well as other bilateral agreement items.

At a disaggregated level, the items in the above mentioned three categories for the US comprised of $131.6 million, $11.3 million and $3.9 million for the month of June.

In fact, the surge in apparel exports for the first half of the current calendar for the US destination comes at a time when exports to one of favourite markets - Europe - has declined substantially.

Exports to Europe dropped by as much as 5.15 per cent in the first half of the current year, in terms of value. One of the main markets that has seen the decline in Europe is UK while exports to other European destinations like Germany, France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden have registered an increase both in terms of quantity and value. Sources in the ministry said that export trends for markets like Canada, US would be improving in terms of quantity, value and unit value realisation.

One of the main worries, however, whichcontinue to dog the industry will be the markets in Europe where the downward trend is expected to continue.