"Fear of losing buyers. mass layoffs: Uncertainty looms for Noida textile units in aftermath of Trump tariffs", 1 September 2025

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Exporters say that their production floors are unusually quiet — piles of stitched fabric waiting to be dispatched, sewing machines running at half capacity, and days are being spent not on getting new contracts but on anxious negotiation calls with American buyers.

“Before tariffs were increased to 50% on August 27, we had to ship goods to the United States at a 12% discount just to clear stock,” said Lalit Thukral, President, Noida Apparel Export Cluster, and owner of Twenty Second Miles, a firm which employs around 5,000 workers. “But now with tariffs at 50%, new orders have stopped completely. Buyers are asking us if we can cut prices further. At this rate, we cannot survive...”

Anil Peshawari, Managing Director, Meenu Creations, which employs around 3,000 workers, echoed similar concerns of an uncertain future. “We don’t know what will happen next, whether this is temporary or whether the US buyers will simply shift away to competing nations.” His company supplies apparel to US retail chains like QVC and Coldwater Creek.

Peshawari added, “The US constitutes 17% of our turnover. If that disappears overnight, many small units will be unable to sustain … .Unlike Europe, which is fragmented with many small buyers, the US gives bulk orders… that is why this hit is so severe.”...

“...If this crisis continues for two or three more months, a quarter of the factories here will shut down. That is lakhs of livelihoods gone — and imagine the social impact of that.”

A senior HR manager at an apparel firm in the city...said: “Some orders have been put on hold midway, others have been cancelled. If the fabric has only been purchased, it can be diverted elsewhere. But once it is cut according to the design, it becomes dead stock. That is the situation we are facing now. A lot of our goods are just lying here in the factory. Every day, it feels like the business is slipping away, if this continues then mass layoffs are inevitable.”...

"They are distributing orders to Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka. One business season is already lost. To bring buyers back will take two years. Once supply chains shift, they do not come back easily,” Thukral said...

Faced with shrinking orders, Indian exporters are now undercutting each other to hold on to clients. “There is an order-snatching war within India itself. One exporter is taking away another’s order by offering a 15 to 20% discount, even if it means suffering a loss. Everyone is desperate to hold on to buyers. The fear is that if you lose them once, they will never come back,” Thukral said...

"...This isn’t like COVID, which was a long-term shutdown. This is a short, sharp shock. Even the US will eventually realise it cannot depend only on Bangladesh or Vietnam. But if our factories shut down in the meantime, buyers will have no reason to return.”