The country’s apparel makers have heaved a sigh of relief following a government announcement that it has received new explosives-detecting equipment for Dhaka airport. This has made the industry hopeful about persuading the European Union (EU) to lift a ban on direct flight air cargo. Since June 1, the EU has insisted air cargo from Bangladesh be screened by a third country before entering EU airspace, citing the absence of bomb-detectors at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), the nation’s main gateway. The move has sparked a flurry of government procurement activity: “EDS (explosive detection system) and EDD (explosive detector dogs) have just arrived,” Rashed Khan Menon, civil aviation and tourism minister, told just-style. That said, the installation and roll-out of the new systems and services will take “time”, he said without specifying. Once installed, the minister expressed the hope that the resulting security improvements would encourage the EU to withdraw the direct flight cargo ban. Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the industry lobbyist group, welcomed the government action, predicting it would help persuade the EU to liberalise its restrictions. “It’s good. The sooner the authority installs the equipment, the better for us,” he said. He said apparel exporters had been facing problems in shipping merchandise as a result of the ban, which followed similar decisions by Australia and specific EU member states Germany and the UK. Currently, flights carrying Bangladeshi cargo undergo explosives screening at a third-country airports including in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Singapore before reaching the EU destinations. “Our fares are rising but the shipment of merchandise is getting slower. Third-country inspection takes much time for unloading, screening and reloading cargo,” Rahman told just-style. The BGMEA said costs of air shipments comprising mostly high-value and time-to-market sensitive products have climbed by 20 per cent to 40 per cent owing to enhanced security measures by the EU. Also, the requirements have driven up shipping times from two to three days prior to the ban to five to 15 days now. The bulk of air-borne cargo leaving Dhaka airport constitutes apparel products, with volumes averaging 700 to 800 tonnes a day, according to freight forwarders and exporters. And securing the withdrawal of restrictions on Bangladesh cargo flights is crucial for the country as more than half of its annual clothing merchandise shipments are exported to the EU. In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported goods of all kinds worth US$19.35 billion to the EU making up as much as 55.55 per cent of the country’s total export receipts value of $34.83 billion. And while sales are increasing, growth is sluggish. Textiles and clothing shipments to the EU were up 3.49 per cent year-on-year to $17.75 billion in the last financial year, according to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the slowest growth in 15 years. This slow growth is partly caused by the German, British and Australian direct cargo bans, which were imposed in 2016 and 2015, said clothing sector executives. Germany purchased garments valued at $5.13 billion in the financial year 2016-17. The UK imported textiles and clothing worth $3.3 billion that year. And Australia imported readymade garment products worth $581 million from Bangladesh in the same period.
