Dhaka, August 15, 2014 (New Age): Country’s export to the US fell significantly but to China it continued to skyrocket and to India it rebounded in July, the first month of the financial year 2014-15. Export earnings from the US in July of the FY15 fell by 14.22 per cent to $501.04 million from $588.11 million in the same period of the FY14 due mainly to compliance issue in the readymade garment sector, experts and exporters said. According to the Export Promotion Bureau data, export to China in July grew by 53.88 per cent to $79.47 million from $51.64 million in the same period of the last financial year, maintaining the upward trend of FY14. Export to India rebounded and grew by 13.32 per cent to $39.17 million in the first month of FY15 from $34.57 million in the same period of the FY14, EPB data showed. ‘The key reason for the fall in export to the US market is that the market has lost its lucrativeness to some extent to the Bangladeshi exporters due to tough compliance issue,’ Nazneen Ahmed, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies told New Age on Thursday. She said that the exporters were no longer eager to export to the US market as the US did not provide trade benefits for Bangladesh ignoring long-standing demand for the facility from the exporters. Alternative markets rather than US are comfortable for the exporters and a number of manufacturers concentrated on new markets, Nazneen said. She said that the rise of export to China was expected as the country shifted its industry to hi-tech and decided to import basic products from other countries. ‘Despite having duty-free access the export to India had maintained a decreasing trend in the last few years but recently the Indian government eased non-tariff barriers and export increased,’ Nazeen said. The export of RMG products to the US decreased to $468.19 million in July in the FY15 from $548.58 million in the same period of the FY14, the EPB data showed. The export of RMG products to China grew to $34.01 million in July in the FY15 from $22.79 million in the same period of the FY14 while the RMG export to India increased to $14.28 million from $12.89 million. The recent US data showed that Bangladesh’s apparel export to the US fell by 1.39 per cent to $2.45 billion in the first six months of 2014 from $2.48 billion in January-June of 2013. The export earnings from India fell by 19.03 per cent to $456.63 million in the financial year 2013-14 from $563.96 million of the FY 2012-2013 and the earnings figure was four-year low. The export earnings from China increased to $746.19 million in the FY14 from $458.18 million in the FY13, the EPB data showed. Echoing Nazeen Ahmed, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim said that a number of US buyers pulled out their business from the Bangladeshi factories as the factories were located in shared buildings and failed to meet tough US compliance issue. He said that the buyers from China and India were flexible over the compliance standard. So the exports to the countries increased, he said.
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