Published in The Financial Express on Monday, 30 March 2015.
Bangladesh, Myanmar plan preferential pact to boost trade
Syful Islam
Bangladesh and Myanmar are considering signing preferential trade agreement in a move officials say could take both-way commerce to a new high.
The Bangladesh Tariff Commission recently carried out a study on the prospect of such an accord between the two neighbouring countries and submitted it to the ministry of commerce.
A senior commerce ministry official said the study has portrayed both positive and negative sides of the potential trade pact under which both countries are supposed to cut back on duties.
He said the ministry will soon sit with all relevant people to get their opinion on the study and decide whether the two countries should sign the deal. “After that, we will hold inter-ministerial meeting to have a final decision on it.”
Another trade official said Myanmar has freed up its market recently after the ‘democratic’ government came to power.
He said many reforms are taking place there and many western companies have already started to invest in the ‘once army-ruled’ country.
He said some of the Bangladeshi companies also already invested in Myanmar.
“Many global corporations are flocking to Myanmar. We need to give further importance to bilateral business relations to capitalise on the new opportunities,” he said.
Statistics show that in fiscal year 2012-13, Bangladesh exported good worth $13.67 million to Myanmar and imported goods of $484 million from there.
Bangladesh’s major export to Myanmar include frozen food, agri-products, chemical products, leather, jute goods, knitwear, woven garments, rice, lentils, fish and timber.
On the other hand, the country imports live animal, vegetable products, prepared foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco, plastics, raw hides and skin, leather, wood and articles of woods, footwear, textiles, and article of human hair.
Last year at a meeting of Joint Trade Commission (JTC), the two neighbours decided to raise annual bilateral trade from $100 million now to $500 million.
The meeting had discussed, among other issues, expansion of border trades, cooperation in various sectors including agriculture, food, fisheries, power and mineral resources, and introduction of direct shipping service between the two nations to increase trade.
In a recent meeting in Dhaka, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman said joint collaboration in the areas of connectivity and investment and better trade facilitation might help increase Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral trade.
Myanmar could be an opportunity for Bangladesh, considering the country’s thrust on ‘look-east policy’ and entry to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market, on the one hand, he said, adding the Southeast Asian country can also look at Bangladesh as a gateway to exploit market opportunities in South Asia, on the other.