BD to partner Eurasian Economic Union

Bangladesh is set to tie up with a new economic bloc, led by Russia, aiming to explore untapped export potential in markets of its member-countries, officials said.
"We have, in principle, decided to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on trade and economic issues with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to tap benefit," a senior official at the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE.
He said the EEU, which groups five northern Eurasian countries--Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia--has forwarded a draft of the MoU for finalising. "We are working on it."
The official said the MoC convened an inter-ministerial meeting last week where participants opined that a financial deal with the bloc would be beneficial for Bangladesh.
"We had been in talks with Russia for signing a trade deal during the last ten years. After forming the EEU and getting membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) it did not show any further interest to sign the deal," he said.
He said getting duty-and quota-free access to the Russian market under bilateral arrangement has become uncertain. "Now we have to pursue any types of trade benefit with the EEU since Russia is also a member of the customs union they formed."
Sources said after receiving the proposal for signing the MoU, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) also held an inter-ministerial meeting in mid-June where representatives from various ministries and departments gave positive note for signing the deal.
Later, the ERD has forwarded it to the ministry for accomplishing the deal following necessary procedures.
Another senior MoC official told the FE Bangladeshi goods have immense potential on the Russian market. Export of Bangladeshi products to Russia has increased fivefold during the last five years, amounting to US$314.292 million in the fiscal year 2015-16.
He said Bangladesh mainly exports apparels, jute, frozen foods, tea, leather, home textiles and ceramic products. Its imports include cereals, minerals, chemical products, plastic products, metal, machinery and mechanical equipment.
"Russia can't give us alone duty-and quota-free access to its market being a customs- union member. Signing the MoU may be helpful for us to get duty-and quota-free market access to the EEU," said the trade official.
Statistics show that Bangladesh's export of goods to the EEU member-states is on the rise with $321.91 million turnover in the last fiscal from $302 million in 2014-15.  
The bloc has a 183-million-strong population with an area of 20 million square kilometres. Members of the Eurasian Economic Union have a gross domestic product of over 4.0 trillion US dollars.
Bangladesh enjoys duty-and quota-free market access to the European Union having 28 members. The country is also exploring possibility of joining another bloc, namely Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries, which will lower trade barriers, such as tariffs, among the signatories.  
Members of the vast trading bloc are Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore, and New Zealand.
When contacted Monday, adviser of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Manzur Ahmed hailed the government move to sign deal with the EEU and said the tie-up should have been done much earlier.
"The Eurasian and CIS countries have a big market which we should have explored much before. The government is yet to take any fruitful step to be linked with the countries," he said.
Mr Ahmed said instead of depending on markets in the European Union and the United States, Bangladesh needs to find out alterative marketplaces for raising exports.
The CIS countries---former republics under the defunct Soviet Union--should be given topmost importance, he noted.
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