Even as India has emerged as strong export destination for ‘Made in Bangladesh’ products including apparels — Bangladesh exported goods worth US $ 1.096 billion to India in the fiscal year 2019-20, of which US $ 420.72 million or almost 47 per cent was textiles products even as according to Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) the demand for Bangladesh’s textile and apparel goods in India has been rising since many international retailers are directly sourcing from Bangladesh — a recent World Bank report has maintained that a free trade agreement (FTA) could increase Bangladesh’s exports to India by 182 per cent and improving transport connectivity could take it even further by 297 per cent, while the figures are around 126 per cent 172 per cent, respectively, the other way round.
This was maintained in media reports which cited a joint report released by the international financial institution’s Dhaka and India offices recently, titled, ‘Connecting to Thrive: Challenges and Opportunities of Transport Integration in eastern South Asia’.
The report further, reportedly, pointed out that nontariff barriers, para-tariffs and high tariffs were major hurdles between the two neighbours even as it underlined the duo’s average tariff was more than twice the world average while going on to add that complicated and non-transparent nontariff measures, which are policy measures other than tariffs, that affect the free flow of goods and services across borders, added to the high trade costs.
