Bangladesh to get relaxed China guidelines for increasing exports

Image: Collected
Bangladesh is set to put forward some proposals including in search of leisure of Asia Pacific Trade Arrangement (APTA) guidelines of origin through the ensuing Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) conference, officials said.

The Bangladesh side may also request Chinese entrepreneurs to create jv industries in Bangladesh, they added.

Additional proposals to be located prior to the meeting include setting up of a design institute on the leather sector and a style design institute on the readymade garment (RMG) sector etc., they mentioned.

The commerce ministry has recently submitted some proposals to the foreign ministry for inserting them at the upcoming FOC meeting between Bangladesh and China.

"Bangladesh has been experiencing a continuing trade imbalance through the years. In buy to trim down the prevailing trade imbalance between the two countries, we have given some talking items to the ministry worried for positioning the proposals at another FOC meeting," a higher official of the commerce ministry explained.

The commerce ministry suggested requesting China to relax the APTA Guidelines of Origin and Guidelines of Origin of Zero Tariff Treatment for Bangladesh in the sort of 25 per cent value addition (ad valorem percentage) rather than 40 % in processed products, in line with the talking points.

It has additionally made demand to persuade the Chinese buyers to set up jv industries found in the fields of country's leather things including sneakers, IT, light engineering, agro-processing foods, shipbuilding, quality value added textile products.

The ministry suggested that trade delegations have to visit China and meet their counterparts for assessing the demand, price and quality of products having export potential.

China granted duty-free of charge and quota-free (DFQF) access to 8,549 Bangladeshi items (97 %), which may help boost exports even though lowering the ballooning bilateral trade imbalance, officials express.

The trade benefit was presented with by China to Bangladesh as a least designed country (LDC) under the Community Trade Organisation (WTO) provisions.

China offered duty-free of charge treatment to the LDCs in July 2010 and Bangladesh used to take pleasure from the power for 60 % of its tariff lines.

The benefit for Bangladesh came into effect from July 01, 2020 and would continue before country graduates to a producing country status, slated for 2024.

Simultaneously, Bangladesh will continue enjoying preferential market access to China beneath the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement or APTA, which covers 3,700 HS Codes.

Under the facility, Bangladeshi things must ensure benefit addition of 40 % while beneath the APTA the requirement is 35 per cent.

To avail the enhanced benefit, Bangladesh signed a letter of exchange found in 2019 and sent it to China because of its response. After a long wait, the Chinese financing ministry on June 16 agreed to grant the center to Bangladesh.

China is the major trade spouse for Bangladesh with twelve-monthly bilateral commerce totalling above $12.13 billion.

In the fiscal year 2019-20, Bangladesh imported goods worth over US$11.53 billion from China and exported goods over US$ 600 million.

Country's trade gap with China stood at practically US$ 11 billion within the last fiscal season (FY20), in line with the figures of the ministry.

The Bangladesh-China FOC may very well be held in Dhaka before long.

The FOC will review various global, regional and sub-regional issues of mutual interests. Concerns of bilateral cooperation will also be discussed.

Source: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Tags :

Share this news on: