Bangladesh’s export potential in China remains untapped due to COVID-19 pandemic: Report

Notwithstanding the fact that China has given duty-free access for 97 per cent of goods (Beijing extended duty-free access to 97 per cent of Bangladeshi goods in July last year, bringing 8,256 products under the tariff-free regime), Bangladesh could not capitalise on export potentials in China for most part of the last year, largely due to the fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic and also due to lack of diversified products, claimed media reports.

Underlining that exports to China in the second half was expected to increase significantly on back of the duty privilege, Research Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), MA Razzaque told the media that retaining duty-free access in China is very important considering that if Bangladesh can increase its export contribution to China to 1 per cent, the country’s export to China will be US $ 26 billion in a year, but went on to add that unfortunately the fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic impacted the overall business badly last year.

Meanwhile, as per the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) data, annual average growth of garment export to China was 48.85 per cent between 2008-09 and 2018-19 and it fell in 2019-20 due to the pandemic as export came down to US $ 330 million even as the BGMEA President, Dr. Rubana Huq, has expressed her gratitude to China for extending the duty-free access to 97 per cent of the tariff lines to the least developed countries.

Export of garment to China cannot be said slow as progress is happening; however, the enhancement of product coverage appears to be insignificant in terms of our trade coverage, the BGMEA President, reportedly, maintained further.