Bangladesh is unlikely to reduce incentives on exports of jute goods, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said yesterday.

Bangladesh’s steel export, mainly semi-finished casting products, leaped 82.91 per cent year-on-year during the July-January period of the ongoing fiscal, interestingly coinciding with the ongoing pandemic-induced economic slowdown.

Earnings from merchandise exports fell 4.99 per cent year-on-year to $3.43 billion in January because of slower recovery of garment shipment from the pandemic-induced business slowdown, official data showed yesterday.

Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi today demanded that Pakistan withdraws the anti-dumping duty on export of hydrogen peroxide for greater bilateral trade between the two countries.

Bangladesh’s jute industry is passing exceptional times.

Merchandise shipment declined 0.36 per cent year-on-year to $19.23 billion in July-December 2020 as Bangladesh’s major export destinations continued to struggle to tame the rising coronavirus infections, official data showed.

Experts, including economists and business leaders, have suggested that Bangladesh sign free trade agreements with ASEAN countries to boost exports to the bloc.

The government has decided to send 1,475 tonnes of hilsa fish to India as a gesture of goodwill on the occasion of Durga Puja, an annual Hindu festival, and has already given the go-ahead to nine exporters to begin shipments from the next week.

A Bangladeshi barge carrying 50 tonnes of cement has reached Sonamura in the north eastern Indian state of Tripura two days after setting sail from Daudkandi, opening a new chapter in bilateral connectivity.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi has called upon the Japanese government to extend the zero-duty benefit for Bangladesh exports to Japan for at least five more years after the country graduates from the least developed countries (LDC) status.

It appears garment manufacturers are at last breathing a sigh of relief as work orders for apparel items from international retailers are coming back with the reopening of their stores in the European and American markets.

On June 16, 2020 China declared duty-free export facilities for the least-developed countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh on 97 per cent of their tariff line.

The country’s earnings from garment export in the outgoing 2019-20 fiscal year declined to 27.83 billion USD – an 18.45 percent decline compared to the previous fiscal year.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed continuation of 1 percent additional cash incentive for the country’s garment export in 2020-21 fiscal year too, considering the economic fallout from Covid-19 pandemic.

Clothing manufacturers in India have asked the government to impose more duty on import of clothing items, especially from Bangladesh, to save their domestic industry.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has been engaging different international rights groups to ensure that international retailers and brands pay local suppliers.

Walton is set to export smartphones to the US, in what can be viewed as a remarkable endorsement of the leaps taken by Bangladesh’s manufacturing sector.

Thousands of farmers and traders in Khulna region are incurring losses worth Tk four crore every day as crab and eel exports to China have been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The government will provide 15 per cent cash subsidy to rice exporters for the first time in the country’s history with the view to encouraging shipment of the surplus grain.

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BSCCL) is looking for new markets to export its huge unused bandwidth and the new destination is Nepal, said officials of the state-owned listed firm.