Editorial
Duty-free access for our RMG
Build upon the potential opportunity
We think it is a very good beginning, albeit a modest step towards reducing the huge trade imbalance between Bangladesh and India. The quantity of eight million pieces may seem small to begin with but the recently concluded MOU has the potential for enhancing the quantity in future. Even more, the significant aspect of the understanding is that an item that had so long been in India's sensitive list of import items will at last be de-listed in the case of Bangladesh.
We must make use of other concessions too, like being able to export the goods from any port in Bangladesh as well as the waiver of the rules of origin in so far as raw materials is concerned, to gain a larger share of India's garment market in future.
However, it is only but a potential for a bigger opportunity that we must go all out to realise. With our garment sector facing the prospect of increasingly tougher competition from next year we must make our products more competitive in terms of price and quality, not to speak of meeting the deadline for supply.
We feel that there is a need for a close look at our trade with India and the very gross imbalance weighed against us. The volume of trade between the two countries amounts to about two and a half billion USD annually; our share being a paltry 300 million of it. Although India is our second largest trading partner it is tenth in the list of export destination of Bangladeshi goods. This, not withstanding the spurt in export to India, which has seen a rise of more than 400 percent in the last five years as compared to about 100 percent to the rest of the world during the same period. We have been assured that many more items will be allowed into India's market duty-free from 2008. This is indeed a good opportunity and our exporters must not only look for market diversification within India but also include non-traditional items in the export basket.
Let us seize upon the opportunity to enhance our trade cooperation with India and bring down the trade deficit.
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