Tirupur's Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Canada and Australia has not yet been implemented. Now, exporters, from the region have urged the Centre to expedite the process and to conclude CEPA by September this year as committed earlier. A Sakthivel, President, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), and other industry representatives recently met Union commerce minister, Nirmala Sitharaman and requested the government to address export-related issues. Ready-made garments worth $16.82 billion were exported in 2014-15, of which, garments worth $7.23 billion were exported to the EU.

Main competition in this region for India is Bangladesh, which enjoys duty-free market in the region due to its least developed country status. The country exported about $15 billion in 2014-15 to the EU market alone, this was more than double of Indian exports.

For India, its main competitors are Bangladesh and Cambodia as they both enjoy the least developed countries tariff treatment. Pakistan and Vietnam also continue to get benefits under the General Preference Tariff (GPT). However, India imposes normal customs duty, about 20 per cent for exports to Canada. CEPA could help exporters compete with these countries effectively.

TE A also stated that it would help to include European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States, such as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, from country group C to country group A and make them eligible for MEIS reward rate at 2 per cent of FOB value of exports. This would help increase India's competitiveness in these countries.