Signing FTAs with Latin American, African countries feasible: Studies

Signing free-trade agreements (FTAs) with some Latin American and African countries is more viable than with other countries which have already made proposals for inking such deals with Bangladesh, according to studies.
Bangladesh Tariff Commission under the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) conducted the studies regarding a good number of FTA proposals pending with the government. The proposals came from different countries including Malaysia and China.
The studies were also done as the Bangladesh missions in different countries put the demand to the MoC at times.
Officials said the studies find that the country's scope of signing FTAs with many other countries is limited due to low export baskets. But signing FTAs with LA and African countries is more feasible due to creation of new market of Bangladeshi products in those countries.
"We are hardly in good position in trade with many other countries that actually block the way of getting benefit of FTA in favour of us," said one official, preferring not to be named.
The studies found the scope of FTAs with Mexico, Argentina, Brazil as well as South Africa as Bangladesh's export market in these countries is expanding, he added.
As export duty in many African and Latin American countries, including Brazil, is high, Bangladesh can get benefit of FTAs from those countries, the official said.
Though the Bangladesh missions in different  countries have taken a move to create the scope for signing FTAs but the MoC has so far shown reservation in this regard mainly for possible loss of revenue as trade with many of potential countries is in favour of theirs. Highly import-based market narrows the scope of negotiations on FTAs.
FTA brings benefits only when the export-import volume between the two countries is someway equal.
However, sources said a move was also taken to carry out similar studies through the private sector for getting a clear picture of FTA benefits.
So far, the country has received proposals for signing FTAs from countries like India, China and Malaysia. Recently, the authorities concerned explored the scopes of signing FTAs with Sri Lanka and Thailand following visit by high-ups including the Sri Lankan president.
Sources said many countries which earlier showed interest in the duty-free facility from Bangladesh remained silent. India proposed signing FTA in 2002, but it did not proceed afterwards.
They said though Bangladesh has shown interest in signing FTAs with some countries, many of these countries were unwilling.
"There is mismatch of interest in signing FTA. For example, we are interested in signing FTA with Turkey, but it remains silent in this regard," said the official.
As the government has made a move to explore new markets for export mostly in LA and African region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also opened mission offices over there.
The officials said with the opening of these mission offices, the scope of developing the market and signing FTA has been created.
In a recent meeting, the MoC found little scope of signing FTAs before 2025 due to enjoying tariff preference as a least developed country (LDC). Though the government set target of achieving middle-income-country status by 2021, sources said, the process of Bangladesh's graduation would not be completed before 2025.
The country, however, has been enjoying duty-free access to the Chinese market under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) since 2010 and Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal and India under South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA). But those packs are hardly found effective in favour of Bangladesh.
smunima@yahoo.com