Action plan on cards to reduce trade deficit with China

Rezaul Karim | Published: March 23, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

As Bangladesh suffers a huge trade imbalance with China, one of its major trading partners, the government has taken a fresh move to put a brake on the widening gap between the two countries.
The government of Bangladesh has initiated the move to reduce trade deficit between the two countries aiming to boost exports over next five years, officials said.
As part of the move, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) along with the representatives from the country's apex trade bodies will formulate an action plan to boost exports to China, according to commerce ministry sources.
Besides, the government will identify the causes of trade gap between the two countries and the EPB will co-ordinate how to reduce the existing trade imbalance with China, they said.
Bangladesh will again seek duty free and quota free access (DFQF) from China on proposed 17 products. Earlier, the country had sought DFQF access for these additional items.
A pavilion is likely to be set up at Beijing in China and export of eel fish and leather products to that country may increase further, sources said.
Bangladesh had been suffering a large trade imbalance with China during the period between the fiscal year 2009-10 and FY 2013-14. The county's trade imbalance with China stood at US$ 6798.60 billion in the fiscal year 2013-14, according to the EPB data.
Bangladesh imported goods worth $ 7544.80 million from China in the fiscal year 2013-2014 and exported products of $ 746.20 million to that country during the same period, the data show.
Bangladesh's export to China was worth $ 458.12 million in 2012-13 while the country imported $ 6324 million worth of goods from China in the same time, according to the data.
"We are trying our level best to reduce the existing trade gap with China. But we have to import a large volume of capital machinery from China every year. In this context, I think the little gap is not bad," Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary of the commerce ministry, told the FE on Saturday.
"We will open a commercial wing at Kunming in China soon to enhance exports to that country," he added.
The government had already urged the Chinese government to relax the rules of origin in favour of Bangladesh in the Chinese market, an EPB official said.
Bangladesh exported live and frozen fish, oilseeds, leather and leather goods, cotton waste, jute and jute goods to China, industry insiders said.
China is the largest import destination for Bangladesh. The country imports machinery, garment fabrics, cotton, chemicals and electrical equipment etc, they added.
The proposed 17 products include polymers, gloves, silk, and silk waste, wiping cloth, leather footwear outer soles, lead-acid batteries and synthetic fibre, they added.
Currently, Bangladesh enjoys duty-free benefit for 4,788 products to China under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) arrangement as both the countries are members of the trade bloc.
During his visit to Dhaka in December last year, the Chinese foreign minister proposed signing a free trade agreement with Bangladesh to reduce the existing trade gap between the two countries.
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