Bangladesh should go for market diversification and focus on ‘South-South’ trade for apparel exports: Professor Mustafizur Rahman

Published in New Age on Sunday, 6 November 2016

Apparel exports to US crawl to $4.17b in Jan-Sept

Staff Correspondent

Country’s apparel export to the United States in the first nine months of this year posted a minimal growth as the overall readymade garment import by the US fell in the period due to a slow recovery of the world’s number-one economy.

Bangladesh’s apparel exports in the January-September period of 2016 to the US amounted to $4.17 billion, up from $4.15 billion in the same period of last year with a paltry growth of 0.61 per cent, according to the US commerce department data released on Saturday.

Except Bangladesh and Vietnam, major exporting countries including China, Indonesia, India and Mexico witnessed negative export growth to the US market in the January-September period of 2016.

According to the data, the overall apparel import of the US in the period of January-September fell by 4.99 per cent to $61.64 billion from $64.88 billion in the same period a year ago.

Data showed that the China’s apparel exports to the US in the January-September period of the year 2016 decreased by 8.64 per cent to $21.25.billion from $23.26 billion in the same period of 2015.

‘The minimal export growth of Bangladeshi readymade garment products in the US market in the first nine months is the upshot of a slow recovery of the US economy,’ Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age on Saturday.

He said that the US economy was recovering but at rate lower than the expected level.

Mustafiz said that the export of China to the US was decreasing gradually and Vietnam was trying to grab the share of the business.

‘A massive share of the trade would be shifted to other countries from China in coming days and we will have to try to grab the share,’ he said.

‘Except Bangladesh and Vietnam, most of the shippers country experienced negative export growth in the US market in the January-September period of this year as the overall imports of the country decreased in the period,’ he said.

Mustafiz said that the growth trend indicated that Bangladesh should go for market diversification and also focus on ‘South-South’ trade.

The US data showed that apparel export earnings of Vietnam from the US in the first nine months grew by 1.64 per cent to $8.17 billion from $8.04 billion in the same period of 2015.

Apparel export from India to the US market in the period decreased by 0.08 per cent to $2.87 billion from $2.88 billion in the same period of 2015.

Indonesia’s apparel exports to the US in the January-September period of this year decreased by 3.40 per cent to $ 3.63 billion from $3.76 billion in the same period of last year, the data showed.

Apparel export earnings of Mexico from the US in the first nine months fell by 7.16 per cent to $2.51 billion from $2.71 billion in the same period of last year.