Trade imbalance
Refer to your editorial 'Duty free access for our RMG" that appeared on September 18, 2007, the recently concluded MoU on duty-free access for garments exports from Bangladesh to the Indian market, without any conditionality, is indeed a welcome development. There is clearly a room for many such initiatives to facilitate exports from Bangladesh to the growing Indian market.
Improved access for our products to markets abroad is important. Equally important is the need for diversification of our basket of exportable items, and for our products to be more competitive in terms of price and quality--a fact that you have correctly underscored in your editorial.
Regarding trade imbalance, it is a fact that we have large trade imbalance with India. But not many are aware that Bangladesh has even larger trade imbalance with China. While our trade deficit with China in the fiscal year 2005-2006 was around US$ 2 billion, it was US$ 1.63 billion in respect of India. It is a bit mystifying that while there is always a shrill rhetoric against the large trade imbalance with India, not much is written about our trade imbalance with China. The Daily Star is no exception. The reason perhaps seems to be simple; we like (or prefer) to indulge in India bashing. Is this a manifestation of some twisted mindset or ingrained prejudice? Should not we be asking China as well for steps to be taken by them to address the large trade imbalance? More importantly, hasn't time come for keeping rhetoric away from reality, and instead focus on capitalising on emerging business opportunities?
The silence of our policy-makers and the press is disappointing.
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