Editorial Desk :
Media report said bilateral trade between Bangladesh and the US has set a new milestone, hitting $10.64 billion in 2021, up by $2.71 billion over the previous year, according to the United States Census Bureau. The US exported goods worth $2.33 billion in that year while Bangladesh exported goods worth $8.30 billion mainly garments. The Dhaka-Washington bilateral trade was just $720 million in 1990 and it increased to $7.92 billion in 2020.
It appears that the trade figure between the two countries has gone over the past year when the US imported apparel products worth $7.14 billion from Bangladesh in 2021, up by 36.69 per cent from $5.22 billion in 2020. The US is already Bangladesh’s one of the most important trading partners with about 20 per cent of our exports reaching the US market. On the other hand, the US is exporting cotton, capital goods and machineries. The balance of trade account shows over four times in favour of Bangladesh. Our apparel exports have made successful inroad in the US despite very high import tariffs requiring Bangladesh to pay over 15.2 per cent duty on RMG exports.
We understand that exports to the US would rise tremendously if the US provides preferential duty benefit to Bangladeshi apparels such as we are demanding the GSP facilities from the US over the years. The US is a close ally and we would say we would maintain it. But the US is offering low duty facility only on minor imports retaining RMG on high tariff list. Bangladesh bilateral trade with the US may hit new record soon if the global markets situation continues to improve from the negative impact of the pandemic situation. Our RMG exporters have rightly targeted $50 billion worth of apparel exports soon where the US remains the biggest market. This is going to happen for low cost RMG exports in one hand and for the fact that Bangladesh has become an attractive destination of orders for US and European buyers because of the world’s largest number of eco-friendly green factories operating here.
The US-China trade war also made Bangladesh apparel industry one of its best beneficiaries. We understand
bilateral trade with the US will unimpededly flourish in foreseeable future. What is important is that we must avoid political factors in our relations that may overshadow trade.
Good trade relation is to be encouraged with the USA but not at the cost of democracy and human rights violations. The core value of their leadership is human rights and democracy where communist countries cannot compete. The people who are struggling for democracy and helpless against massive corruption have nowhere to look for other than the USA.
