Dhaka: China has offered duty-free access for nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi products in a "goodwill gesture" marking a significant development in economic ties between the two countries after Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina's Beijing visit in March this year, officials and reports said here yesterday.
"The Chinese embassy here has informed us of the offer for the duty-free access of our 4,721 products. We expect to get the detailed list of products later this month," a senior commerce ministry official told media.
He added that Beijing has not imposed any preconditions for the access or sought any reciprocal action by Bangladesh.
The offer came nearly two months after Hasina made her maiden Beijing tour, which Dhaka described as the beginning of a "strategic partnership" between the two countries.
Bangladesh enjoys duty-free access to 27 European Union nations under its Everything But Arms (EBA) trade access facilities the continental grouping extend to least-developed countries.
The country also enjoys duty-free access for hundreds of products to countries in North America, Asia and Oceania. But in most cases, Bangladesh's main export item, apparel, has been made off-limit.
Competitive advantage
Financial Express said Tariff Commission officials expected ready-made garments and leather and leather goods would be included in the Chinese duty-free access offer as Bangladesh has competitive advantages in these products.
"If garments and some of our top export items are given duty-free access to the Chinese market, we'll be an economic force to reckon with in a few years' time," a Tariff Commission official told that newspaper. The Tariff Commission, which operates as a government think tank on trade issues, has been tasked with examining the Chinese offer and facilitating negotiations.
Bangladesh earlier sought duty-free access for 39 items to Beijing during the last Bangladesh-China Joint Economic Commission meeting in Beijing in July last year.
Business analysts said duty-free access to the Chinese market is very important for Bangladeshi merchandise, as it is the fastest growing economy in the world with a population of 1.3 billion and the growth of major Asian economies now largely hinge on its expansion.
Bilateral trade
Over the past few years, China has replaced India as Bangladesh's biggest import destination with bilateral trade touching over $4 billion (Dh14.71 billion), though heavily skewed in favour of Beijing.
The country's major export items to China include raw jute, leather, shrimps, woven garments, camera parts, copper wire, plastic waste and engineering products but none of them enjoy duty-free access.
The development came as Foreign Minister Dipu Moni earlier said Bangladesh entered into a "strategic partnership" with Beijing with Hasina's maiden China visit.
China, she said, was no more a product-exporting country to Bangladesh and "it now appeared as a partner in our overall development" while the approach of the Beijing's leadership to Bangladesh was "very positive" and the "warmth" of the Chinese leaders and people was "beyond routine". "The Cold War age perspective of balance of relations is now invalid [that] we have age-old ties both with India and China and deeper relations with one of them would affect the ties with another," she said.
