Bangladesh export growth including that of the readymade garment to the United States market continued to slow.The US is a second major destination of Bangladeshi garment products after the EU market. According to the latest Export Promotion Bureau data, the country earned $5.29bn from RMG exports to the US in fiscal year 2014-15 with 2.85% up from the previous year’s $5.14bn. But the data showed the continuous fall in growth in last two years. In FY2013-14 the RMG exports to US rose by 2.9%, sharply down from 10.31% in FY2012-13. Low demand, increased competition, political unrest and rise of production cost due to implementation of factory compliance were responsible for the slow-down, said exporters and analysts. “Buyers could not come to Bangladesh to place orders and further business negotiations because of political turmoil. It hampered the export growth to a major destination,” BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune. “But what is the most worrisome is that new competitors are coming. The countries like Vietnam are performing well in the US market,” he added. Azim said as the Trans Pacific Partnership might give Vietnam duty-free access to the US market, the buyers were showing increased interest in that country. The exporters said orders were being shifted to new competitors like Vietnam which was to avail duty-free facility to the US market after signing the much anticipated TPP deal. He urged the government to come up with policy support to successfully face new competition in the global market and grab more market shares. Data showed the overall exports to the US rose by 3.58% to $5.78bn in FY2014-15 from $5.58bn in the previous fiscal. CPD executive director Mustafizur Raman also believed the new challenge of competition from countries like Vietnam and Cambodia caused slow-down in export growth. The TPP agreement was another reason behind this as the buyers wanted to increase their business relations with Vietnam, he added. Mustafizur said drop in demand from the consumers side also led to the fall of export growth. Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) president Abdus Salam Murshedy said apart from political unrest, increased production cost due to compliance process cast an impact on export growth. He said although production cost had risen, the prices didn’t, making Bangladesh less competitive in the global market. According to data of OTEXA for the month of April, Bangladesh competitors were doing well in the US market. Myanmar, the emerging exporter of the RMG products to US market, has posted a 123% growth to more than $8m in the first four months of this year. RMG export to the US market from Vietnam also increased by 16.5% to $799m while India’s export growth grew by 9.82% to $1.4bn. Meanwhile, China, the global leader of apparel manufacturing, lost its share in the US market, which was captured by Vietnam, Bangladesh and India in recent times.
