A file photo shows a man looking at shoes at a stall at a leather and leather goods fair in Dhaka. Dhaka hopes that most of the 17 products, including leather footwear, it has been asking for zero tariff facility since 2015 will be covered under the recent announcement by China to allow duty free-access to 97 per cent of the Bangladeshi export items.— New Age photo

Dhaka hopes that most of the 17 products it has been asking for zero tariff facility since 2015 will be covered under the recent announcement by China to allow duty free-access to 97 per cent of the Bangladeshi export items.

Commerce ministry officials told New Age that the 17 products included maize, tobacco, gloves, silk waste, synthetic fibre, polythene-based products, men’s trousers, cotton- and synthetics-based payjama, a number of leather-based footwear items and acid-based batteries.

At present, 3,095 Bangladeshi products have been enjoying preferential duty access to the Chinese market under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement since 2010.

But high duty imposed by China on these selected products discouraged local exporters to look for Chinese buyers, said the officials.

The officials also said that chances were slim that the Chinese would allow duty-free entry of locally produced maize and gloves.

But the woven apparel exporters, leather-based footwear exporters and automotive battery makers were likely to benefit from the Chinese tariff concession to be given from July 1.

Alauddin, head of the treasury department of the Rahimafrooz Batteries Ltd, said that they were already exporting their lead-acid batteries to more than 50 countries, including China through their UAE-based sales centre. He said that they had heard about the Chinese announcement but yet to know the details.

Additional secretary of the commerce ministry Sharifa Khan said that the ministry would soon come up with an announcement so that the exporters could know in detail about the Chinese new policy on tariff rates.

Some 5,161 Bangladeshi products would come under the purview of the Chinese new announcement meant for the least developed country.

The trade gap between Bangladesh and China is heavily tilted toward the later.

Against the export worth paltry $831 million to China, Bangladesh imported $12 billion worth of goods from the country in the last fiscal year that ended in June 2019.

Bangladesh-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry joint secretary general Al Mamun Mridha said that the supply chain disruption caused by the US-China trade war was likely to be filled up by a boost in export of tariff-exempted goods from Bangladesh.

He hoped that many foreign companies might invest in Bangladesh to export products from Bangladesh.

He said that frozen food export might get a boost under the new Chinese policy.

Bangladesh Tanners Association president Shahin Ahmed said that many leather-based footwear items produced in Bangladesh did not enjoy much preferential duty benefit under the APTA.

But now the leather exporters were hoping that leather-sole-footwear and other leather-based items would enjoy duty-free access as commerce ministry officials were negotiating on the items to be granted duty-free access, he said