[Bangladesh] Trade Gap with Delhi Increases to $2.91 billion

[airuah]

this is actually stupid......if Bangladesh is not gonna buy them from India then they have to buy them else where which might be an expensive option ...... why do you think bakistan buys some goods from india? do you think its some kind of good faith thing?no its because we provide a cheaper option...you guys have to understand one fact---india is a huge country that is producing a lot of stuff which you guys need .....and it does not make sense for indians to establish companies in your country coz...1)Bangladesh is just next door
2)we have the worlds second largest population and we have to provide employment here....
3)even china does only employ its own citizens even in its companies that it sets up abroad....

and stuff like maruthi suzuki they are sld there coz you people buy them. you think we can just dump cars into bangladesh if no one buys them? do you really think industrialists are nut cases who just produce and dump stuff everywhere...

so summing up you are buying more from us coz we are the cheapest option for some of the products that you need...and we are not buying more from you coz we already produce most of the stuff you produce or you dont produce stuff that we require and hence the disparity in trade...

 

[desiman]

I wonder about the same thing coming from India to USA. It is causing severe problem in USA IT job Market.

please go and research the effects of outsourcing to India on the US economy. India unlike China is not a manufacturing center so we are not flooding the US with of our goods. As per research the US it sector has actually grown in the past decade because of the savings companies make when they outsource to India. Can you please prove to me what "Severe" problems is India causing to the United States. The only ones who cant find a job in North America are the ones with useless credentials and have outdated education, ,rather than crying over the market they need to update themselves and start over.

 

[sab]

We are and we will be sending $4 billion dollar worth of goods to US market this year only. 41% increase in export to US only in August.

Regarding India, huh we are pulling their legs as they are the super power in this region but cant buy shhit.. We will be buying 1/2 of India within couple of decades. Their cattle already on verge of extinction because of our voracious apetite

First buy some medicine to get over the indigestion. The acidity has gone up to your brain.

 

[fallstuff]

please go and research the effects of outsourcing to India on the US economy. India unlike China is not a manufacturing center so we are not flooding the US with of our goods. As per research the US it sector has actually grown in the past decade because of the savings companies make when they outsource to India. Can you please prove to me what "Severe" problems is India causing to the United States. The only ones who cant find a job in North America are the ones with useless credentials and have outdated education, ,rather than crying over the market they need to update themselves and start over.

A product is not neccessaraly tangible. The effect of outsourcing and H1 visas is rather old story now.

I don't see anything wrong in the deficit with Bangladesh. Most of it is raw material bought for the garments industry. India being the cheapest gets the business.

Inida throws barrier on imorts it deems hurtful to its industry. This is protectionism.

 

[eastwatch]

Give me a good reason showing Bangladesh is Jelous of India. India had a head start of 24 years, Bnagladesh stared as a war torn country in 1971 with 24 dollars on reserve.

You are a little wrong in your statement that India has a head start of only 24 yrs. 1947 and 1971 may be regarded as two milestones only, but, these are not necessarily two starting points in the economic activities of the two countries.

India has a head start of about 100 years. Immediate before the end of Sepoy Mutiny, the present day India, being at the center, started to develop under the British patronage. Indians were already educated in English. There were tremendous efforts to make irrigation projects in Punjab to develop agriculture.

Almost all of the present day India had started industrialization by that time. TATA, BIRLA and many other big names started their industrial activities in those days. Extensive railways were built by the Indian-British govt more in the present day India than in our flood prone Bangladesh area.

There are many other economic activities that were started in the present day India before or after 1857. So, it is not that these two countries have a head start difference of only 24 yrs. In reality, it is more than 100 years. Yet, Bangladesh is achieving today what India has achieved only 10/15 years before.

Note that our GDP is increasing by about 6.5% every year at present. This is much higher than what India achieved 10/15 years ago. So, we are surging forward and soon our economic development will surpass 8% Inshallah. We will become a new economic tiger shortly.

 

[eastwatch]

HEY, keep your bullshit rants with yourself. why we accept that without any proofs. state the facts first, then talk. you keep running away without any answers to my questions. have guts, talk sense. give us the details of sanctions which is imposed by GoI and your high standard products.

Watch your language, baby! Don't write bullshit here. Just open your market and see if we can outbit you or not. You guys are unhealthy because of lack of nutritions in your food, and so, your productivity is lower than us where labour intensive industries are concerned. You cannot win over our quality and productivity.

 

[eastwatch]

Eastwatch,

Sorry to say only Iajdani tries to provide information that helps discussion. You are just using your big mouth for sake of using....without any contribution. Being a Bengali myself, and having several relatives in BD I do not have to work very hard to understand what is going on in BD.

You are right to say its era of open competition. At the same time the nations do follow the theory of comparative advantage. BD has its strength in some sectors and it should concentrate on that. Trying to get a foot on everything will be an insane economic policy.

South Asia - Bangladesh, India Trade

Read the article before vomiting your biased information here.

We are not trying to spread our efforts to many industries. Rather, we are concentrating our efforts on certain specific industrial goods as export items. But, you are imposing unfair tax and unwriiten prohibitions to stave off our goods from entering your market. Cement is one such item. India has imposed an additional 18% tax on its import. See the original news article to read about it.

 

[TopCat]

this is actually stupid......if Bangladesh is not gonna buy them from India then they have to buy them else where which might be an expensive option ...... why do you think bakistan buys some goods from india? do you think its some kind of good faith thing?no its because we provide a cheaper option...you guys have to understand one fact---india is a huge country that is producing a lot of stuff which you guys need .....and it does not make sense for indians to establish companies in your country coz...1)Bangladesh is just next door
2)we have the worlds second largest population and we have to provide employment here....
3)even china does only employ its own citizens even in its companies that it sets up abroad....

and stuff like maruthi suzuki they are sld there coz you people buy them. you think we can just dump cars into bangladesh if no one buys them? do you really think industrialists are nut cases who just produce and dump stuff everywhere...

so summing up you are buying more from us coz we are the cheapest option for some of the products that you need...and we are not buying more from you coz we already produce most of the stuff you produce or you dont produce stuff that we require and hence the disparity in trade...

The debate is not about buying from India which we dont mind. But the question is to open up Indian market and see if you could sustain.

 

[eastwatch]

South Asian Media Net

BD seeks trade with NE states of India
Monday, October 25,2010

NEW DELHI: As part of the move to intensify trade relations between the North Eastern States and Bangladesh, Commerce Minister of the country, Muhammad Faruk Khan has proposed a meeting with Industries Ministers of the region in January-February, next year.

With an eye on the bustling markets of the eight North Eastern States, Bangladesh has sought duty-free access to Indian markets, pointing out that fate of the region and Bangladesh are intertwined.

Talking to a group of newsmen before his departure to Dhaka, the visiting Commerce Minister said he met Union Minister for North Eastern Region (DoNER) and Mines, Bijoy Krishna Handique and held a detail discussion about trade possibilities.

The Minister said he has called for a conference with the Industries Ministers of the North Eastern Region during the opening of border haats in January-February, to further strengthen trade ties. Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma is also likely to be present at the inauguration of the haats.

Khan said the opening of border haats would help increase local trade and reduce smuggling across the border areas. He said more such haats would be opened in the border areas depending on the success of the two haats in Meghalaya.

Indian Government has allocated $ 125 million for the development work of seven integrated check posts and eight land ports. Khan said the initiative would further help expand trade between the two countries.

Meanwhile, riding on the wings of improved ties, the Bangladesh side that also included business delegation did some hard bargaining seeking further trade concessions and dilution of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

The Minister also made passing reference to the changed security scenario between the two countries. Bangladesh had facilitated the flushing out of holed up insurgent leaders of several militant outfits including ULFA, NDFB and UNLF, among others, in the recent months.

The High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Tariq Karim said that Bangladesh with a growth rate of six per cent can latch on India to increase its growth rate, while landlocked North-east with a growth rate of four per cent or less can latch on to Bangladesh to grow.

“The North Eastern States can grow if they latch on to us,” Karim said.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Minister expressed his happiness over the $ 1 billion credit line provided by Delhi to Dhaka, which he would be utilised for the infrastructure development including rails and roads. He said movements of goods would be easier and prices would come down for the benefit of the people.

“We held fruitful discussions and we have achieved our objective from the visit. I will be very happy to see that all the decisions taken are being implemented. It might take some time and we have to wait until that. People want end results,” he added.

The Commerce Minister further said that he had invited Anand Sharma to visit Bangladesh in December.

India has promised to export 1.1 million bales of cotton to Bangladesh in the coming year. The Minister described the move as a ‘good step’. Dhaka imports one thirds of cotton from India to meet its domestic needs.

The Commerce Minister said that India has positively responded to Bangladesh’s demand to exclude 61 items from the negative list of 480 items. He said of the 61 items, 47 were garment related.

He said the huge trade gap between the two countries would be narrowed if India imported more products from Bangladesh and Dhaka could send more duty free items to India.

Khan said that he had raised the issue of export of jute bags from Dhaka during his talks with Anand Sharma and was assured that the matter would be resolved soon.

 

[true_indian]

We are and we will be sending $4 billion dollar worth of goods to US market this year only. 41% increase in export to US only in August.

Regarding India, huh we are pulling their legs as they are the super power in this region but cant buy shhit.. We will be buying 1/2 of India within couple of decades. Their cattle already on verge of extinction because of our voracious apetite

Do you even know the geographical size of India. Cattle on the verge of extinction, my a$$. Before you buy us, we're already buying all of your companies.

 

[eastwatch]

Do you even know the geographical size of India. Cattle on the verge of extinction, my a$$. Before you buy us, we're already buying all of your companies.

We all know your size, it is 22 times larger than BD. We also know your tiny population size, it is only 7 times larger than us. But, still India remains a poverty stricken poor country, whose population do not have the capacity to purchase only $1 billion worth of goods from us. On the contrary, we buy more than $3 billion from you.

Keep on putting barriers on our way to export. But, wait for a few more years, you will see what we are. We are waiting to become an economic giant with or without the poor Indian market.

 

[TopCat]

I did not know that India outright banned 480 of Bangladeshi items forget tariff, para tariff and non tariff barrier.
Anybody could translate the article???

ভারতে বাংলাদেশী পণ্যের ওপর থেকে নিষেধাজ্ঞা উঠতে পারে


মনমোহনের ঢাকা সফর

০০ তারিক হাসান, কলকাতা থেকে

বাংলাদেশের যে সমস্ত পণ্যের ভারতে আমদানির ক্ষেত্রে নিষেধাজ্ঞা ছিল তা এবার প্রত্যাহার হতে চলেছে। বিশেষ করে সূতী বস্ত্রের ক্ষেত্রে বাংলাদেশ এই সুবিধা পেতে চলেছে। নতুন বছরের শুরুতে অর্থাৎ ২০১১ সালের জানুয়ারি মাসে অথবা চলতি বছরের শেষে ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ড. মনমোহন সিং ঢাকা সফরে যেতে পারেন। স্থির হয়েছে তখনই তিনি বাংলাদেশের মানুষের জন্য এই 'সুখবর' ঘোষণা করবেন।

বাংলাদেশ থেকে ৪৮০টি পণ্যের ভারতে আমদানি করা নিষিদ্ধ। বাংলাদেশ দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই এর মধ্যে ৬১টি পণ্যের ওপর নিষেধাজ্ঞা প্রত্যাহারের আবেদন জানিয়ে এসেছে। বাংলাদেশের বাণিজ্যমন্ত্রী ফারুক খানের দিলস্নী সফরের পর এ বিষয়ে বরফ গলতে শুরু করেছে। দিলস্নীর সাউথ বস্নক সূত্রে জানা গেছে, ফারুক খান ভারতের বাণিজ্যমন্ত্রী আনন্দ শর্মা, বস্ত্র সচিব রীতা মেনন, অর্থমন্ত্রী প্রণব মুখার্জির সঙ্গে বৈঠকে যে সমস্ত যুক্তি দিয়েছেন তা যথেষ্টই গ্রহণযোগ্য মনে হয়েছে। তারা বিষয়টি জরুরিভাবে উপস্থাপন করেন প্রধানমন্ত্রী মনমোহন সিংয়ের কাছে। সব দিক খতিয়ে দেখে ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ভারত-বাংলাদেশ দ্বিপাক্ষিক বাণিজ্যের বিষয়টি আরও সুগম করার সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়েছেন। দিলস্নীর সাউথ বস্নক সূত্রে জানা গেছে, মনমোহনের ইচ্ছে বাণিজ্য ক্ষেত্রে নির্দিষ্ট কিছু পদক্ষেপ নিয়েই ঢাকা সফরে যেতে। উত্তর-পূর্ব ভারতে বাংলাদেশের পণ্যের ভাল চাহিদা আছে। পাটজাত পণ্যের ক্ষেত্রে বিনিময় বাণিজ্য হতে পারে। এখন বিভিন্ন মন্ত্রণালয়ের সঙ্গে আলোচনা করে তিনি সব দিক খতিয়ে দেখছেন। মনমোহন সিং ঠিক করেছেন বাণিজ্য বিষয়ে চূড়ান্ত রিপোর্ট পেয়ে তিনি সিদ্ধান্ত নেবেন ঢাকা সফরের। ঘোষণা করতে পারেন বাংলাদেশী পণ্যের ভারতে আমদানির ক্ষেত্রে নিষেধাজ্ঞা প্রত্যাহারের কথা।

ঝাড়খন্ডে বাংলাকে দ্বিতীয় ভাষার মর্যাদা দেয়ার দাবি

ঝাড়খণ্ডে বাংলা ভাষার মর্যাদা দাবি নিয়ে ফের আন্দোলনে নামছে বিভিন্ন সমিতি। নিরসার বিধায়ক, মার্কসবাদী সমন্বয় সমিতির নেতা অরূপ চট্টোপাধ্যায় বলেছেন, বিহার রাজ্যে থাকাকালীন বাংলা এ অঞ্চলে দ্বিতীয় ভাষা হিসাবেই মর্যাদা পেত। বাংলা একাডেমি ছিল। কিন্তু ঝাড়খণ্ড রাজ্য গঠনের পর থেকে বাংলা ভাষার প্রতি বিমাতাসুলভ আচরণ করা হচ্ছে। বিধান সভার আগামী অধিবেশনে এ বিষয় তিনি দৃষ্টি আকর্ষণ করবেন। প্রতিবারের মতো এ বছরও গোবিন্দপুরের খরকাবাদে বিজয়া সম্মিলনীর আয়োজন করেছিলেন ঝাড়খণ্ড বাংলা ভাষা উন্নয়ন সমিতির সদস্যরা।

অনুষ্ঠানে সিন্দ্রির বিধায়ক ফুলচাঁদ মণ্ডল বলেন, ঝাড়খণ্ডের প্রতিটি জেলায় বাংলাভাষী আছেন। বাংলায় পরচা, খতিয়ান, দলিল লেখা হয়। বাংলা ভাষার ইতিহাস এ অঞ্চলে বহু পুরনো। তা সত্ত্বেও বাংলা ভাষার প্রতি সরকারের অনীহা লক্ষ্য করা যাচ্ছে। ঝাড়খণ্ডে বাংলা ভাষাকে যত দ্রুত সম্ভব দ্বিতীয় ভাষার স্বীকৃতি দিতে হবে। তা না হলে তারা জোরদার আন্দোলনে নামবেন। উলেস্নখ্য, বাংলা ভাষা নিয়ে ঝাড়খণ্ডে দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই আন্দোলন করছেন এখানকার বাংলাভাষীদের বেশ কিছু সংগঠন।

http://ittefaq.com.bd/content/2010/10/26/news0830.htm

 

[LaBong]

বাংলাদেশের যে সমস্ত পণ্যের ভারতে আমদানির ক্ষেত্রে নিষেধাজ্ঞা ছিল তা এবার প্রত্যাহার হতে চলেছে। বিশেষ করে সূতী বস্ত্রের ক্ষেত্রে বাংলাদেশ এই সুবিধা পেতে চলেছে। নতুন বছরের শুরুতে অর্থাৎ ২০১১ সালের জানুয়ারি মাসে অথবা চলতি বছরের শেষে ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ড. মনমোহন সিং ঢাকা সফরে যেতে পারেন। স্থির হয়েছে তখনই তিনি বাংলাদেশের মানুষের জন্য এই 'সুখবর' ঘোষণা করবেন।

Bangladeshi products which have restriction on them to be imported to India, are going to be permitted. Specially cotton products are going avail this favour. Starting from new year(2011) or end of this year, when Indian prime minister will be visiting Bangladesh. He may break the 'good news' to Bangladeshi people.


^I only found this relevant. :p

 

[eastwatch]

Dhaka upbeat about deals with Delhi

Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Dhaka upbeat about deals with Delhi
Faruk hopes for no delay in implementation; Manmohan may come in January

Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan yesterday said he is upbeat about the deals signed with India and hoped that the neighbour country would implement the agreements without delay.

He was briefing the media at commerce ministry on the outcome of his three-day visit to India that concluded Sunday.

The minister said Bangladesh and India came up with some major developments such as establishment of border haats [commodity markets], agreement on movement of trucks between the countries, import of 3 lakh metric tonnes of par-boiled rice and 2 lakh metric tonnes of wheat from India and ensuring cotton-import quota for Bangladesh.

India has also made other pledges including accreditation of certification of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI), reduction of items in its sensitive list, withdrawal of tagging "Made in Bangladesh" label on each jute bag exported to the country, he said.

During the visit the business communities of the countries signed four memorandums of understanding (MoU) including setting up of a joint venture packaging industry in Bangladesh by Indian SRS Group and Nitol Group of Bangladesh. The Indian company will invest $50 million in this venture.

"I hope India will stick to its commitments. We want faster implementation of these pledges to take the bilateral relationship to a new level," Khan told the reporters.

He said many of the deals agreed in this trip would be carried out in one month.

Khan said the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, probably in January next, would help settle issues like allowing duty and quota-free export of apparel products to India.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh would be able to export duty-free 1.7 million pieces of textile products in the last quarter of this year while a fresh duty-free quota of 8 million pieces would take effect from January 2011, he added.

The minister held discussions with his counterpart Ananda Sharma, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the business community. A 20-member delegation accompanied the minister during his visit.

On Saturday, Bangladesh and India signed an MoU for establishing two border haats along the Meghalaya border. These haats will be opened by mid-February next year. Some 20 types of goods -- mainly agri and agro-based -- will be displayed for sale where currencies of the both countries will be accepted.

Another major development of the visit, as the commerce minister claimed, was allowing transit for trucks from Nepal to Bangladesh up to Land Customs stations. India committed to do it during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in January this year.

India has also agreed to consider Bangladesh's demand of excluding 61 items, including garments, from its sensitive list of 480 items, said Faruk Khan, adding that Bangladesh will get to import 11 lakh bales of cotton from India this year out of its total import demand of 55 lakh bales.

The commerce minister termed the cotton deal the biggest success of his visit.

So far this year, Bangladesh did not get 1.35 lakh bales of cotton from India despite opening of LCs.

Relationship between Bangladesh and India has improved dramatically since the landmark visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Both the countries have been indicating a significant rise in economic and political ties since.

India is Bangladesh's leading importing country with a total import worth nearly $4 billion in 2009-10. Bangladesh has a trade gap of $3.5 billion with India.

 

[eastwatch]

India opens up further its market for B'desh goods

Lifts ban on cotton, food grain exports


FE Report

New Delhi has agreed to provide duty free and quota free market access for all Bangladeshi ready-made-garment (RMG) items in its markets, lift current ban on export of cotton, rice and wheat to Bangladesh to strengthen trade relation between the two neighboring countries, said Commerce Minister Faruk Khan on Tuesday.

Faruk was addressing a press briefing at the conference room of the commerce ministry after returning from his three day visit to India.

He said the Border Haat, following signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries during his visit, will start at the latest by first week of October next year to benefit people living on the frontier of both the countries.

"The outcome of our recent visit to India is enormous. India has assured and agreed to exclude 61 items now lying with its Negative list under SAFTA agreement, soon," Faruk told the reporters.

"The exclusion of 61 items, for which we have long been pursuing with the Indian government through bilateral meetings and regional forum, would ensure our duty-free and quota free export of RMG and some other goods to Indian markets," the commerce minister added.

Elaborating, the minister said that currently Bangladesh enjoys duty free market access for RMG up to 8.0 million pieces annually to Indian market. Of the 61 items, 47 products are of different kinds of RMG both from woven and knit categories.

"The facility of duty and quota free access will be provided very soon by Indian government. The export sector of the country, particularly RMG, will be enormously benefited out of the proposed offer," Faruk told the press conference.

Furthermore, Faruk told journalists, importing of about 0.15 million bales of cotton from India, another 0.50 million rice and 0.20 million wheat have been stalled for long due to the export ban imposed on those items by India.

Indian Commerce Minister has assured of lifting the export ban on those items, Faruk told newsmen.

"Besides, India has agreed to increase cotton export to Bangladesh from 0.10 million to 0.11 million per annum, while assurance has been given to increase the yearly export quota of cotton from 0.15 million bales to 0.20 million bales," Faruk said.

Industry people hailed the Indian decision on duty-free and quota free export facility for the country's unlimited RMG export. They said the RMG export to India will shoot upto $2.0 to $3.0 billion per year.

"It's a landmark decision. The export of RMG to India from Bangladesh would increase at least by two to three billion dollars as the demand of low cost RMG is growing in Indian market mainly because the Indians are tilting heavily to high-tech and IT industries abandoning apparel export business," Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhuiry (Parvez), former President, BGMEA, told the FE.

He, however, said the country now wants to see the materialisation of Indian assurance given in this respect soon.

Other major items falling under 61 items include soybean oil, refined palm oil/palmolein, aviation turbine fuel and fuel oil, natural rubber (smoked sheets), toilet or facial tissue stock, sanitary napkin, paper or paperboard labels of all kinds and silk fabrics, an official said.

Referring to his visit to India, Faruk said they had asked Indian authority to lift provision of inscribing 'Made in Bangladesh' seal on each jute bag exported to India from Bangladesh.

'It's a non-tariff barrier imposed recently by India on jute bags originating from Bangladesh. The Commerce Minister of India Ananda Sharma has agreed to lift the barrier," Faruk told the meeting.

On mutual recognition of standardisation, the Commerce Minister said a delegation of India will visit Bangladesh next month to undertake programme to upgrade the country's standardisation institution -- Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).