COMMERCE Minister Tofail Ahmed has reportedly called upon the Indian government to withdraw the countervailing duty (CVD) on Bangladeshi exports to help boost trade between the two countries across the border. He has raised the issue in the backdrop of ever widening trade gap at the disadvantage of Bangladesh. The Minister took the issue on Sunday with India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman in Kolkata where Bangladesh he is attending a trade fair. It appears that when Southeast Asia and Pacific regions are opening up fast joining free trade agreements, India is working to keep the benefits of free trade in the region drastically down to member countries’ benefit. Exports from Bangladesh are facing continued setback to India from many non-tariff barriers including CVDs and limited scope of advertising Bangladeshi products. We don’t know why India is critical of Bangladeshi products when its own exports have made Bangladesh more and more dependent on Indian goods. We urge India to withdraw its CVD on Bangladesh exports.Despite Indian government duty-free access to all Bangladeshi products except 25 alcoholic and beverage items, India is realizing the highest rate of CVD on 20 percent of Bangladeshi products. Even garment products which are high on the list of duty-free products are paying 12.5 percent CVD and all such restrictions pushed exports 19 percent down last year from the year before. Bangladesh exported $456.63 million products in 2013-14 while India’s export stood at $6.03 billion in 2013-14. Bangladesh mainly imports basic commodities from India like rice, cotton, onion, fabric, chemical products and dye, limestone, cattle, electricity, machinery and pulses. Besides, unaccounted trade – Border Haat, smuggling in of cattle and phensidyl and other narcotics, and smuggling out of rawhides, is usually advantageous to India.The general perception in Bangladesh is that India is not interested in facilitating Bangladesh’s export to its market, but the fact is that if Bangladesh can’t raise its export, its growing import from India will only make trade one-sided. It does not reflect a good trade policy and a supportive neighbourly policy other than an exploitative mindset to keep Bangladesh languishing with a huge trade deficit every year. As we see the world is opening up fast with free trade agreements. The 10-members ASEAN region launched zero tariff trade zone from December last. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is also a 12-member free trade zone, is about to make its debut but the eight members SAARC started about three decades back is only limping without meaningful drive. Free trade agreements were signed among SAARC members but largely left unexploited because of India’s big brotherly outlook. It must come to an end.
