Trade gap with India widens to $5.58 billion

Bangladesh's trade deficit with India has swelled in recent years with import continuously rising while export hitting rock bottom for barriers created on the neighbouring market.
The gap amounted to US$5.579 billion in the last fiscal year.
As per official data, the year-on-year increase in the bilateral trade deficit, against Bangladesh, was 33.58 per cent or USD 1.402 billion in the FY 2013-14.
The data, released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and Bangladesh Bank, show that the country's trade with India marked incremental imbalances in the last one decade.
In the last six years, the deficit has more than doubled--from $1.978 billion in 2006-07 to $5.579 billion in 2013-14.
According to Bangladesh Bank statistics, the country imported goods worth about US$ 6.036 billion from India in the last fiscal as against total exports worth $456.633 million.
It leaves an import-export gap amounting to $5.579 billion in favour of the mighty neighbour. In the previous fiscal, the gap was US$ 4.176 billion.
In the just-concluded fiscal year, Bangladesh exported goods worth about US$ 456.633 million to India as against US$ 563.960 million in the previous fiscal, registering a negative growth of 19.03 per cent.
On the other hand, import from India increased by 27.34 percent over the previous fiscal.  The import amount was about $ 6.036 billion in the last fiscal as against $ 4.740 billion in the previous fiscal.
India emerged as one of the largest sources of raw materials for Bangladeshi manufacturing industries, resulting in the import surge. At the same time, Bangladeshi exports hit various non-tariff barriers to enter the Indian market.
This disparity contributes to the widening of the trade deficit, said an exporter.
Analysts and businessmen attributed the imbalance mainly to appreciation of the local currency against the Indian rupee and various non-tariff barriers (NTBs). The NTBs include testing and certification and weak border infrastructure.
Some of the exporters also blamed "diplomatic failure" for the uneven two-way trade.
Even after allowing duty-free access of Bangladeshi-made apparels to India, Bangladesh could not make any significant growth in export mainly because of the non-tariff barriers and government's lack of initiative in negotiation with the counterpart on different trade-related issues.
Business leaders and experts are continuously demanding that India remove non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to help Bangladesh in increasing exports to the country to reduce the galloping trade gap between the two next-door neighbours.

Such issues were also discussed threadbare at a recent business meeting titled 'Bangladesh-India business conclave' in Dhaka.

mzrbd@yahoo.com