The country’s trade gap with China increased by 18.44 per cent to $4.35 billion in the first half of this financial year of 2015-16 from $3.67 billion in the July-December period of FY15 despite a zero-tariff export facility for a number of Bangladeshi items to the Chinese market. Bangladesh Bank officials said the trade gap with China continued rising in recent years as Bangladesh failed to attract the Chinese consumers to its products due to lack of product diversification. Bangladesh’s imports from China stood at $4.70 billion in the first six months of FY16 whereas exports stood at $349.78 million. The trade gap in the first half of FY15 was $3.67 billion with an export figure of $393.37 million and import figure of $3.67 billion. The country’s trade gap with China was $7.43 billion in FY15 and $6.80 billion in FY14. A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that it was a bad sign that the country’s trade deficit with China continued rising in recent times. ‘Bangladesh is now enjoying a zero-tariff facility in exporting its products to the Chinese market. But, we have failed to utilise the facility fully due to lack of product diversification,’ he said. Bangladesh’s single-largest import source is China as it imports huge amount of capital machinery, industrial raw materials and consumer goods from China due to lower prices of products there, he said. ‘The increasing trend in import from China is not a headache for the business sector but the rising trade gap is a matter of concern,’ he said. He said, ‘China imports products worth trillions of dollars from different countries each year, but our export share in the country is very low.’ Exports of footwear, leather and readymade garment are now maintaining an upward trend in China, but it is not satisfactory as the demand for such products is high in the Chinese market, he said. The local exporters should give more attention to diversification of the three products in a bid to boost the export to China, he said. The government should speed up investment in product diversification keeping the Chinese market in mind to decrease the trade deficit between Bangladesh and China, he said. The government has given commitment to the Chinese businesspeople a special economic zone for them, he said. The government should try to increase its export volume to the country in exchange of the facility, he said. The exports of RMG products, country’s main export items to the Chinese market, slightly increased to $137.04 million in the first six months of FY16 from $136.49 million in the same period of FY15. A BB official said that Bangladesh exported readymade garment products worth more than $13 billion to the global markets in the first six months of the FY16. But, the country’s export to China was very paltry considering the size of the market, he said. So, the RMG sector should give attention to the issue, the official said.
