A NATIONAL English daily reported that the country’s trade gap with India recorded an all-time high in the last financial year at $5.57 billion as different non-tariff barriers continued to narrow Bangladesh’s exports there. The trade deficit between Bangladesh and India has increased to $5.57 billion (33.76 percent) in the FY14 from $4.17 billion in the FY13. Despite the continuation of rule of the ruling party, known as pro-Indian, the widening trade gap between the countries inverses the friendship and should be narrowed.The latest data of Bangladesh Bank and Export Promotion Bureau showed that the deficit strongly bounded in FY14 due to the lower export earnings of Bangladesh from India. Economists and experts said that India had earlier given duty-free access to certain products including readymade garments, but Bangladesh failed to gain from the opportunity due to the non-tariff barriers imposed by some state governments of India.The BB and EPB data showed that Bangladesh imported Indian goods worth $6.03 billion in the FY14 against its exports of $456.63 million. The trade gap between Bangladesh and India was $4.05 billion in the FY11 and $3.51 billion in the FY10. Jute and jute-related products exports decreased to $80.70 million in the FY14 from $133.85 million in the FY13 while the import of cereals from India increased to $1,085.90 million in the FY14 from $487 million in the FY13. The decreasing trend of jute and jute products exports to India mounts pressure on jute industries – thus contribute to the decline of several industries, while India established several jute industries in the Bangladesh-bordering areas.Besides, unaccounted trade – Border Haat, smuggling in of cattle, smuggling out of rawhides, and smuggling in of phensidyl and narcotics are contributing to the Indian economy by draining out money from Bangladesh. This open-secret trade alongside the border between the two countries is usually advantageous to India. It’s true that Bangladesh is partially dependent on Indian rice, onion, gingers, and other goods to meet the food demand of its people, but in many cases the Indian traders impose higher prices than normal market prices while LCs are opened to export to Bangladesh, a practice considered as an unacceptable trade dishonesty.While Bangladesh is consecutively losing its exports destination in Europe and the US for the withdrawal of GSP facility, the government should take diplomatic moves to increase the export volumes to other friendly countries, particularly India, to avert economic risks. Besides maintaining diplomatic ties with the Indian central government, Bangladesh government should strength trade ties with bordering states to get the non-tariff barriers removed. The government should rejuvenate the economic diplomacy to narrow trade gap by removing tariff, Para-tariff, and non-tariff impositions because asymmetric friendships can never be sustained.
