Canada offers package to further duty-free benefits

Syful Islam | Published: October 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Canada has offered Bangladesh a wider package support for maximising trade opportunities out of the already-granted free market access to the North American country.Â Â Â Â
Official sources said the market-access facility to Bangladesh has been further extended by including more features in the trade-support programme to help augment the volume of its export to Canada.
The Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) of Canada in a recent letter informed the Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa about the developments. The letter was then forwarded to the ministry of commerce (MoC) in Dhaka.
"Bangladesh has been confirmed as a priority country for a 5-year trade-facilitation programme," Bangladesh High Commissioner to Ottawa Kamrul Ahsan in a recent letter wrote to the MoC.
Under the trade-facilitation programme Bangladesh will receive web-based Canadian market-access services, matchmaking with Canadian importers for Bangladeshi exporters, and outreach and promotion activities for trade representatives based in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Besides, Bangladesh will also receive market-entry studies for priority country exporters, a responsive trade-development facility to provide technical assistance related to Canadian market access, and training programme for new trade representatives based in Canada.
In another letter the TFO informed the mission that in addition to being eligible for priority country services, Bangladesh as an LDC will also receive services like awareness-raising seminars under Canada's duty-free LDC market-access initiative, and biennial trade show in Canada for garment exporters.
Bangladesh is the second-largest source country of Canadian imports from South Asia after India.
The two-way trade has reached around US$1.8 billion with Bangladesh's exports accounting for $1.11 billion.Â Â Â Â
Mr Ahsan wrote that quality of Bangladesh's apparel products as well as efficient supply- chain mechanism has largely contributed to doubling bilateral trade in a decade.
However, he noted, recent developments in the apparel sector, particularly Rana Plaza collapse and fire incident in Tazreen Fashions, have adversely affected Bangladesh's export to Canada. And this adversity resulted in the mission's failure to achieve the set export target.
The envoy also wrote that the government of Canada has already confirmed Bangladesh's continuation of enjoying general preferential tariff (GPT) for the period from January 2014 to December 2023.
Under this arrangement the North American country offers duty-free facility to LDC and developing nations.
Bangladesh's merchandise export to Canada has been enjoying duty-free market access since 2003.
"We feel that TFO's offer is a good opportunity for Bangladesh to improve its image as well as market-expansion initiatives in Canada," the envoy said.
Bangladesh mainly exports knitwear, woven, textile articles, headgear, fish and seafood, and footwear to Canada. Garments and textile products accounted for over 90 per cent of Canada's merchandise imports from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's imports from Canada include cereals, vegetables, iron and steel, oilseeds, fertilizers, machinery and electronic equipment.
Bangladesh stood out as the second-largest Canadian farm-food buyer in South Asia, after India, in 2012.
syful-islam@outlook.com