The government will take steps to enhance exports of ready-made garments (RMG), pharmaceutical products and leather goods to New Zealand, taking the advantage of duty-free (DF) access facility there, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said on Wednesday. “We are enjoying duty-free facility for exporting all our items to New Zealand. But still the volume of our export to the country is not sufficient.” He told these to reporters after a views-exchange meeting with New Zealand Ambassador in Bangladesh Grahame Morton at his secretariat office. “We can export our RMG items, pharmaceutical products as well as leather and leather goods to New Zealand. Necessary initiatives will be taken to raise exports of these things, taking duty-free access facility to the country.” The county is interested to increase trade with Bangladesh. Goods worth about US$ 73.63 million have been exported to New Zealand in fiscal year 2015-16. There is a huge opportunity to increase trade volume with the country, he also said. Currently, Bangladesh exports its pharmaceutical products to 123 countries, where there is a high demand for the items. Bangladesh has set a target to export pharmaceuticals goods worth $5 billion in 2021. The government has taken various moves to increase exports in line with the 7th five-year plan, he mentioned. Replying to a question, the commerce minister ruled out a recent claim of Pakistani government of having outstanding dues worth Tk 7.0 billion from Bangladesh, terming the claim baseless and unrealistic. “The country has demanded the dues to foil our demand of realising outstanding dues from them,” he added. The New Zealand envoy said Bangladesh is going ahead rapidly. Its garment sector is doing well. Business relation between Bangladesh and New Zealand is very good. Besides, bilateral trade volume between the countries has increased manifold during the last five years. Major Bangladeshi export items to New Zealand include knitwear, woven garments, textiles, fabrics, jute, jute yarn twin, cap, and tobacco etc. Senior officials of Ministry of Commerce were present during the views-exchange meeting.
