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China grants duty free access to 98pc BD products: Wang Yi

Published : Monday, 8 August, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 619

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that the Chinese government has granted duty-free access to 98 per cent Bangladeshi products to its market from September 1, 2022.
With the new announcement, 98 per cent of Bangladeshi products will join this zero-tariff club from September 1 that raised the numbers of Bangladeshi products with zero duty access to the Chinese market to 8256 under Asia - Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).
"We expect that textile and woven products would be included in the one additional percent of items and that will help boost Bangladesh's export to China," State Minister Shahriar Alam said following the meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
In 2021, China offered duty-free access to 97 per cent of goods from Bangladesh to its market and added 383 new products to this taking the total percentage of 'Made in Bangladesh' products to enjoy duty benefit to 98 per cent  but textile and woven products were not in the list.
The decision came following a meeting between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping to deliberate on ways to upgrade bilateral relations during the COVID-19 pandemic- for sure opened up new avenues for Bangladesh.
With this announcement, a total of 8,256 Bangladeshi products came under the 97 per cent of products that have been exempted from tariff even as around 3,095 Bangladeshi products continued to enjoy duty-free access to the Chinese market under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).
 "We need to diversify our apparel market to China, if the apparel industry gains much from here then the scenario would change," the State Minister said.
The size of China's apparel market, which was approximately around US $ 330 billion (as of 2019), and second only to that of USA (market size of approximately US $ 345 billion), if suppliers in Bangladesh can grab an additional 1 per cent share of the Chinese market by 2030, the former's exports to China can grow to US $ 25 billion.
 Although the Chinese Government offered duty-free market access to 97 per cent of Bangladeshi products to China, it apparently failed to benefit much the garment industry of the country as more than one-third of Bangladesh's total apparel exports to China was said to be out of the duty-free benefit coverage still.
According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), in financial year 2018-19, Bangladesh's total RMG export to China was US $ 507 million, of which US $ 308.4 million worth apparel items was under duty-free facility, which effectively meant, US $ 198 million apparel export was under duty, explained the then BGMEA President Dr. Rubana Huq, who added after China offered duty-free market access to 97 per cent of products, products worth US $ 20 million out of the US $ 198 million have been included in the duty-free scheme.














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