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Product diversity holds key to wider access to Indian markets: CPD

Star Business Report
The government should take full advantage of the duty-free market access to the Indian market by exploring new areas instead of relying on traditional products, a new study of the Centre for Policy Dialogue suggests.
In the past, Bangladesh's major exports to India included raw jute, jute items, fertiliser and frozen foods.
This composition has changed over time, the CPD said.
Now Bangladesh's major exports to the Indian market include jute, home textile, food items, cotton and woven products.
The CPD said Bangladesh should explore opportunities in the areas such as bicycles, optical elements, leather items, handbags, footwear, outer soles and sleeping bags.
The suggestion came at a dialogue on "India's market access offer: realising potential opportunities through enhanced trade facilitation" at Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
CPD Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman said there are some items that Bangladesh exports to the global market but not to India.
"At the same time, India imports some items from the global market, but does not take those from Bangladesh."
Taking advantage of the duty-free access to the Indian market, Bangladesh could potentially increase export of these items to India, he said.
Imports from India went up from $1,358 million in fiscal 2003 to $4,740 million in fiscal 2013, with a three-fold rise in a decade, according to the study coauthored by Rahman and CPD Senior Research Associate Khaleda Akhter.
The study also said Bangladesh's exports to India have increased from less than $100 million in fiscal 2003 to about $5 63 million in 2013, a jump of almost six-fold within a span of 10 years.
The trade deficit stood at $4,176 million in 2013.
But the CPD study said the bilateral trade deficit should not be a major concern as many of the imported inputs from India go into Bangladesh's export oriented industries.
Backing CPD's suggestion, Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs, said Bangladesh should not worry about the trade imbalance.
"If we did not have Indian cotton it would have been tough for the country to increase its exports from $10 billion to $25 billion in recent years."
He said the government plans to open office of deputy high commissioner in Guwahati and Chennai to boost trade.
"We are awaiting permission from the Indian government," he said, adding that there are also some development on opening a second rail route and a container train service between the two countries.
Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the CPD, said the duty-free access would have been hugely beneficial to Bangladesh and the Indo-Bangla relations had it been granted three decades ago.
"But the ball is now in the court of Bangladesh and the business community to exploit the opportunity," he said.
He, however, said he does not see any long queues of businesses to increase Bangladesh's exports to India, although a new window of opportunity has opened up. Sobhan said the rest of the world is exporting $350 billion worth of products and goods to India, where Bangladesh's share is only $500 million.
"Countries like Vietnam are exporting significantly to India in the same trade framework Bangladesh operates in," he said.
He said Bangladesh's entrepreneurs showed sheer strength in keeping the healthy pace of exports in the face of global economic crisis and political unrest at home.
"Why was the strength not directed to the Indian market?" he asked.
The CPD said exporting more to India should help Bangladesh not only in terms of market diversification but also product diversification.
The study identified four areas - infrastructure bottlenecks, inadequate customs and port facilities, non-tariff barriers and cumbersome export procedures - where improvements are needed to boost Bangladesh's trade potential.
The study blamed a lack of appropriate trade-transaction friendly facilities at the customs and port points, which facilitate 90 percent trade between the two countries, for low exports to the Indian market.
The study suggested a mutual recognition agreement so all testing, certification and licensing are harmonised and standardised for both the countries and are mutually accepted.
Trade facilitation, as a cross-cutting area, will play a critically important role in enhancing Bangladesh's export opportunities in the Indian market by taking advantage of the duty-free market access, Rahman said.
He said, to boost connectivity Bangladesh will have to work on four areas: trade connectivity, investment connectivity, transport links and people-to-people contact.
Rahman also said, as trade facilitation measures Bangladesh will have to reduce export and trade transaction cost, bring down import costs and stimulate Indian investment in Bangladesh.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of GPD, said Bangladesh does not lack knowledge and experience when it comes to exploring trade opportunities.
"Our problem lies with a lack of initiatives, steps in right direction and a lack of leadership from the government side," he said.
The economist raised question why the $ 1 billion Indian credit could not be used to remove the already identified barriers that are standing in the way of boosting trade between the two countries.
Bijay Selvaraj, first secretary (commercial) at Indian high commission in Dhaka, said the two countries will have to look at a multi-modal transport system instead of relying on land ports to transport goods.
"Bangladesh also needs to look at the whole of India as its market to take trade relations further, instead of the northeastern states where the population is only 40 million," he said.
Abdul Awal Mintoo, a former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said there is no alternative to diversifying products.