REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA

When China widened duty-free access to 97 percent of Bangladeshi products in 2020 and later extended the concession to almost all goods in 2024, it appeared to offer Bangladesh a rare opening.

Yet years later, Dhaka is still struggling to find much to sell.

It is against this backdrop that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is visiting Beijing, seeking to reinvigorate a relationship shaped far more by what Bangladesh buys from China than by what it exports there.

While exporters say the thought of narrowing the trade gap to zero is unrealistic, economists suggest that Bangladesh should bring Chinese investors into its export drive, not only for capital, but also for market knowledge, distribution networks and access to Chinese consumers.

Bangladesh imports nearly $20 billion worth of goods from China annually, mainly machinery, industrial equipment and raw materials that power its factories, but exports only a fraction in return.

China already offers Bangladesh preferential access under provisions for least developed countries (LDCs), but duty-free benefits alone have failed to deliver a breakthrough.

The challenge is structural.

More than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports consist of ready-made garments (RMG), while China itself is the world’s largest apparel exporter, shipping nearly $300 billion worth of clothing annually and accounting for around 30 percent of the global market.

China imports more than $2.58 trillion worth of goods annually. Interestingly, the country also imports around $10 billion worth of apparel every year.

Even if Bangladesh managed to capture that entire market duty-free, it would still amount to only about half of what Bangladesh imports from China.

According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, Bangladesh exported goods worth $742.50 million to China during July–May of FY2025–26, edging closer to the $1 billion mark. Exports to China stood at $694.49 million in FY2024–25 and $715.37 million in FY2023–24.

Meanwhile, imports from China have continued to rise as Bangladesh has become more deeply integrated into global manufacturing supply chains.

Bangladesh’s export industries, particularly garment factories, rely heavily on imported raw materials, much of which come from China and India due to limited domestic supply capacity.

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