A trade mission headed by commerce minister Tofail Ahmed will visit three Latin American countries to explore export potentials in the region as part of the government’s move for export diversification and market expansion. Officials of the commerce ministry said the delegation consisting of trade officials and exporters would visit Brazil, Argentina and Chile next month. The delegation would explore market potentials in those countries and hold meetings with the government agencies and private sectors there to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers for Bangladeshi products. The trade delegation would also inform the importers in those countries about the potential items and capability of Bangladeshi exporters, they said. A commerce ministry official on Wednesday told New Age that Bangladesh Tariff Commission had already identified some tariff and non-tariff measures posing hindrance to export of local products to those countries. ‘Bangladesh has huge potentials to enter the markets of these countries and other South American countries through removing tariff and non-tariff barriers,’ he said. The government will have to identify the problems to make a request to the governments of those countries for removal of such barriers, he said. Exporters have also been requesting the government to take steps in this connection, he added. According to a study conducted by the tariff commission, Bangladesh exporters face several types of barriers including tariff and non-tariff barriers while exporting to these countries. The report has been prepared based on the outcomes of consultation meetings with the exporters. ‘Argentina, Brazil and Chile are the emerging markets for Bangladesh and an identification of the tariff and non-tariff measures will help market accessibility to these countries,’ the study report said. Bangladeshi products face up to 30 per cent customs duty along with other non-tariff measures including import tax, different tax rates for different states, federal excise, licensing requirements, certificate of origin, language, anti-dumping duty, restriction on certain pharmaceutical products, agricultural safety issues and subsidy in export to Brazil and Argentina, the report said. Chile has provided duty-free and quota-free market access for Bangladeshi products since January 2015 but exporters are still facing some other non-tariff barriers including price band system and special tax on lower assessable value, it said. Currently, Bangladesh’s exports to Brazil, Argentina and Chile are very negligible. In the fiscal year 2013-14, Bangladesh exported products worth US$ 222.71 million to these countries with the highest US$178.03 million to Brazil followed by US$ 35.65 million to Chile and US$ 9.03 million to Argentina. According to the study, readymade garment products, and jute and jute goods dominated the list of the top 10 export items in FY2013-14 to these countries. Officials said that Bangladesh had potentials to increase export of agro-processed products, frozen foods, garment accessories, leather goods, pharmaceuticals, plastic products along with apparel and jute goods.
