By NNN-BSS,
Dhaka : European Commission (EC) in Dhaka expressed its satisfaction saying in spite of uncertainties export of Bangladesh products to Europe in 2007 sustained the five billion euro mark, achieved the year before.
Removal of EU safeguard measures on the import of certain Chinese clothing items could have a bad impact on Bangladesh’s export to Europe, but the country sustained it, trade adviser of
EC here Zillur Hye Razi, told BSS.
The share of Readymade Garment (RMG) in the total exports from Bangladesh to the EU is increasingly steady, it was 87.7 percent in 2003 and it has reached the elevated figure of 90.9
percent in 2007.
In the last four months of the current year, the pace of export to European market is being continued at satisfactory level, he said.
He said, RMG products of basic apparels like shirt, t- shirt, sweater and trouser have strong establishment in the European market in last seven to ten years.
“As a result, the Chinese products of basic RMG apparels could not able to compete with the Bangladesh items despite removing of safeguard on those Chinese products,” he said.
Besides, Bangladesh are enjoying 90 to 100 percent duty free access on its knit products, made by local fabrics and 50 percent duty free for oven items to the EU market which are not
applicable for Chinese and Indian products, he pointed out.
The share of Bangladesh in the total EU import of textile and clothing from all countries is an impressive 5.86 percent, he added.
The shares of other competitors of Bangladesh in the European market are – China 35.82 percent, India 8.20 percent, Pakistan 3.3 percent, Vietnam 1.66 percent, Sri Lanka 1.36 percent, Cambodia .66 percent and Turkey 15.29 percent.
At the total external trade, the EU remained the number one trading partner of Bangladesh with 25.1 percent share in 2007.
However, Razi said, the robust rate of growth in total export to EU, 28.6 percent in 2006, compared to 2005, suffered seriously and registered a decline of 4.3 percent in 2007.
“It is due to global economic recession,” he said, adding, “as example, a European consumer, who used to buy 12 shirts in a year, now buying eight shirts,” he said.
He suggested increased productivity of the RMG sector of Bangladesh to compete in the international arena for sustaining its export growth in the EU market.
Increasing the labour productivity is must to survive in the global market, he said adding, as the owners need to re-adjust the minimum wage in line with current inflation rate to ensure
social compliance, which would increase coasting of production in the coming days.
He also recommended expansion of Bangladesh export basket for EU market by exporting more agro-products, pharmaceuticals and leathers maintaining EU safety standard.
For ensuring quality and safety standard of frozen food and other agro-products several technical assistance projects have already been undertaken by the EC to strengthen the trade capacity of Bangladesh.
It is expected that these efforts will have a positive impact in the long run, contributing to an improved trade scenario in the coming years, the EC trade adviser said.
In the ranking of countries from where Bangladesh imports, China tops the list with 18.2 percent of the total. The next countries are India with 12.9 percent and the EU with nine
percent. The picture is radically different in the matter of exports from Bangladesh. The EU share of total exports from Bangladesh was 47 percent in the last year.
The share of USA was 25 percent and Canada was 3.7 percent. Other countries individually took one percent or less of the total exports going from Bangladesh.