Trade barriers hold back exports to India: Tofail

Bangladesh's exports to India have not been growing at expected levels despite duty benefits in place, due to different tariff and non-tariff barriers, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday.

With the current imbalance in trade between Bangladesh and India, the minister urged the Indian government to hold dialogues between the two countries to remove the barriers to higher exports from Bangladesh to India.

India has awarded duty-free access for all Bangladeshi goods, except 25 alcoholic and beverage items, to the Indian market, but it has imposed a 12.5 percent countervailing duty on apparel and up to $329 antidumping duty on jute exports, he said.

"I hope those barriers can be removed through discussions. But here, India will have to come forward. We have a lot of expectations from our largest neighbouring country India."

Ahmed was speaking on 'India's Integration with South and Southeast Asia' on the second day of a partnership summit held at Visakhapatnam, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh.

The Indian Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce and Industries of India jointly organised the annual event where businessmen, ministers and business leaders from home and abroad were present.

Bangladesh exported goods worth $689.78 million in fiscal 2015-16 and at the same time, India exported goods worth $5.70 billion to Bangladesh.

Moreover, it is believed that goods worth more than $6 billion come to Bangladesh through informal channels through the border areas.

Ahmed invited Indian entrepreneurs to invest in any of 100 special economic zones that the Bangladesh government is developing.

On the first day of the event, the minister brought forward the issue that Bangladeshi exporters are facing hurdles in the export of jute and jute goods to India for the antidumping duty imposed by India.

The issue of antidumping surfaced after the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties or DGAD under India's commerce ministry concluded its probe into the matter in October last year.

Bangladesh's jute and jute goods used to enjoy zero-duty benefits on exports to the Indian market under the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement.

Three years ago, the Indian Jute Mills Association had accused Bangladeshi exporters -- for the first time in 40 years -- of selling jute products at prices lower than those in India's domestic market.

In October 2015, the Indian antidumping authority started its investigation into the matter.

Usually, the antidumping duty on a product is the same amount by which it undercuts the domestically manufactured product. The prices of jute yarn in the Indian market tend to be comparatively low.

Bangladesh exports more than 110,000 tonnes of jute yarn to India a year, according to data from Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.  Besides the jute yarn, Bangladesh also exports raw jute and other jute goods.

Jute yarn and twine account for 65 percent of the sector's annual export receipts of over $850 million, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau and Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association.

The number of trucks carrying jute and jute goods into India through the Benapole land port sharply declined after New Delhi imposed a high antidumping duty on the imports of the goods from Bangladesh.

India on January 5 slapped the antidumping duty on imports of jute and jute goods from Bangladesh and Nepal to "protect the domestic industry". For Bangladesh, the duty ranges between $19 and $352 per tonne.