Chile will provide duty-free access for Bangladeshi products to its market from the beginning of 2015.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday came up with the disclosure about the new market for Bangladesh after a meeting with the ambassador of Chile Cristian Barros at his secretariat office.
Cristian Barros, ambassador of Chile in Dhaka yesterday paid a courtesy call on the commerce minister Tofail Ahmed to discuss a wide-range of bilateral issues, especially trade and investments.
“The government of Chile has decided to provide duty-free access of Bangladeshi products to its markets from January 1, 2015,’’ Tofail categorically told the reporters, after the meeting.
As per the existing laws of Chile, imports from Bangladesh are subject to 17% duty.
“We will sign a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Chile soon to avail the privileges and it would also help us to further improve our bilateral relations.”
The minister said: Under the WTO framework, there has been an option for providing duty-free and quota-free access for the products of the least developed countries. As there has been no quota facility for our products in the market of Chile, the country has decided to provide us with duty-free facilities in their markets.
“Our export to Chile will be increased multifold when we will be able to enter into the unexplored market with the duty-free privileges,’’ said the minister.
In the 2012-2013 financial year, Bangladesh exported goods worth US$30.37m to Chile. Out of the total export volume, 93% or $28.26m were earned only from the apparel sector, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh fetched $22.73m exporting products to Chile, of which $21.10m came from readymade garment sector. Bangladesh export’s to Chile includes Pharmaceuticals, woven and knitwear garment, jute yarn, footwear, caps, cotton bags, engineering products and parts, plastics, ceramics products and clock and watch etc.
Bangladesh imports cooper, fruit, fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals and wine from Chile and the import value in the first half of the current fiscal year stood at $2.70m against export value of $22.73m in the first seven month of the financial year, shows Bangladesh Bank.
“Duty-free access to Chile markets could be a great opportunity for the country’s apparel sector and it would also help reduce dependency on the traditional market and expand export volume,” said Abdus Salam Murshedy, President of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB).
