Increased exports 'help reduce trade deficit with India'
Friday, 29 June 2007
FE Report
Increased Bangladeshi exports to the Indian market have contributed to the reduction of Dhaka's chronic trade deficit with New Delhi, a top Indian diplomat said Wednesday.
"I'm particularly pleased by the sharp increase in Bangladesh's exports to India in the last two years," India's foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon told an elite audience in the city.
"The deficit is shrinking … Your trade with us is growing faster than India's," he said while responding to a comment by a business leader over Bangladesh's huge trade deficit with its next-door neighbour.
He was delivering a speech on "Creating a South Asian Community: India-Bangladesh Relations" in the city, organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), a private thinktank.
BEI president Farooq Sobhan moderated the discussions, attended by diplomats and business leaders.
The Indian diplomat suggested that Bangladesh should intensify its efforts to widen its export baskets, rather than complain about trade barriers, to give its export a further boost.
Asked if the Indian government would take resolute steps to cut sensitive lists to help ensure access of Bangladeshi apparel items to its market, Menon said ready-made garments and textiles are "sensitive on both sides."
He also identified higher transportation cost as one of the major deterrents to increasing the formal trade between the two neighbouring nations.
Some estimates say while the official two-way trade between India and Bangladesh in 2005-06 was US$ 1.83 billion, informal trade could have been twice as much.
Referring to the Indian government's decision at the Delhi summit, Menon said SAARC's poorer members like Bangladesh would enjoy zero-duty access to the Indian market by the end of this year.
"We'll also prune our sensitive list of items considerably. We're well on course to implement these commitments," he said.
He saw "better relations" between Dhaka and New Delhi as integral to a South Asian community.
"Our commonalities far outweigh our differences," he said, adding about half a million Bangladeshis visited India legally last year.
Menon, however, noted the rate at which trade in South Asia has grown recently suggested that the "potential complementarities created by recent changes are still far from being tapped."
Increased Bangladeshi exports to the Indian market have contributed to the reduction of Dhaka's chronic trade deficit with New Delhi, a top Indian diplomat said Wednesday.
"I'm particularly pleased by the sharp increase in Bangladesh's exports to India in the last two years," India's foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon told an elite audience in the city.
"The deficit is shrinking … Your trade with us is growing faster than India's," he said while responding to a comment by a business leader over Bangladesh's huge trade deficit with its next-door neighbour.
He was delivering a speech on "Creating a South Asian Community: India-Bangladesh Relations" in the city, organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), a private thinktank.
BEI president Farooq Sobhan moderated the discussions, attended by diplomats and business leaders.
The Indian diplomat suggested that Bangladesh should intensify its efforts to widen its export baskets, rather than complain about trade barriers, to give its export a further boost.
Asked if the Indian government would take resolute steps to cut sensitive lists to help ensure access of Bangladeshi apparel items to its market, Menon said ready-made garments and textiles are "sensitive on both sides."
He also identified higher transportation cost as one of the major deterrents to increasing the formal trade between the two neighbouring nations.
Some estimates say while the official two-way trade between India and Bangladesh in 2005-06 was US$ 1.83 billion, informal trade could have been twice as much.
Referring to the Indian government's decision at the Delhi summit, Menon said SAARC's poorer members like Bangladesh would enjoy zero-duty access to the Indian market by the end of this year.
"We'll also prune our sensitive list of items considerably. We're well on course to implement these commitments," he said.
He saw "better relations" between Dhaka and New Delhi as integral to a South Asian community.
"Our commonalities far outweigh our differences," he said, adding about half a million Bangladeshis visited India legally last year.
Menon, however, noted the rate at which trade in South Asia has grown recently suggested that the "potential complementarities created by recent changes are still far from being tapped."