Table 4: Top 10 Items of Exports from India to Bangladesh

Present Status: Facts and Figures

The following tables capture the trade figures between Bangladesh and India. While the first table shows the huge trade gap between the two countries, the second table manifests meager amount of trade India is conducting with Bangladesh in terms of its total global share.

Table 1: Total Trade and Balance

(Value in million USD)

Head 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009

India’s export to 1,629.57 2,923.72 2,497.87

Bangladesh

India’s Import from 228.00 257.02 313.11

Bangladesh

Total Trade 1,857.57 3,180.74 2,810.98

Trade Balance 1,401.57 2,666.70 2,184.76

(towards Indian side)

Table 2: India’s Trade with Bangladesh vis-à-vis its global trade

(Value in million USD)

Total Trade 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009

and Balance

India’s total 1,791.39 1,887.57 3,180.74 2,810.98

trade with

Bangladesh

India’s total 152,256.26 312,149.29 414,786.19 488,991.67

global trade

% Share 0.71 0.6 0.77 0.577

The following tables demonstrate the range of products being traded between the two countries. It is important to note that cereals and cotton are the major exportable items from India to Bangladesh and both of them play a major role in the socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Cotton is required for industrial consumption, especially for the ready-made garments, one of the major revenue earners for Bangladesh.

Table 3: Top 10 Items of Imports from Bangladesh to India

(Value in million USD)

S. Commodit 2007-2008

No.

1. Fertilizers 51.43

2. Textile fibers, paper yarn and woven fabrics of paper yarn 48.62

3. Inorganic Chemicals; Organic or Inorganic compounds of

precious metals 22.12

4. Fish and crustaceans, mollusks and other aquatic

invertebrates 21.61

5. Other made up textile articles; clothing and worn textile

articles; rags 16.27

6. Mineral Fuels and related products 11.24

7. Electrical machinery and equipment 10.85

8. Salt; sulphur; earths and stone; plastering materials,

lime and cement 9.90

9. Copper and related products 7.05

10. Iron and steel 6.70

Table 4: Top 10 Items of Exports from India to Bangladesh

(Value in million USD)

S.No. Commodity 2007-2008

1. Cereals 701.10

2. Cotton 645.76

3. Mineral fuels and related products 216.18

4. Sugars and Sugar Confectionery 144.81

5. Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock 137.25

6. Vegetables 118.53

7. Residues and waste from Food Industries, prepared

animal fodder 107.56

8. Iron and Steel 81.73

9. Machinery and mechanical appliances 81.71

10. Organic Chemicals 60.66

Major Impediments to export to India:

Things that are understandably creating the yawning trade imbalance between Bangladesh and India are productivity issues and structural factors. India has productive advantages both in agriculture and industry as compared to Bangladesh because of its sheer size and scale of economies. Structurally Indian economy is much larger, more diversified and technologically advanced. All these factors have made Indian products very competitive, both in terms of price and quality in Bangladesh’s markets. On the other hand, India’s imports from Bangladesh are limited to a few items, as Bangladesh does not have a large supply base to offer a wide variety of products to India. The obvious result is an increase of trade imbalance between the two nations. But if one could assume that market competitiveness and technical/technological sophistication are the only factors that have been denying Bangladesh’s goods and services in India’s large growing market, he/she would be missing the larger part of Indo-Bangladesh trade relations. The other important factors causing this imbalance are the tariff and non-tariff regimes as described below:

Tariff barriers

Duty structure imposed by the Indian authority on the products from Bangladesh is complex and difficult to interpret as the duty varies not only from category to category but also differs from product to product belonging to the similar category. In some cases, basic duty may be nil but other forms of duty, in aggregation, may ultimately precipitate to a substantial figure which is at all not encouraging for exports from Bangladesh. The following tables indicate different type of duties one has to pay to export his/her products from Bangladesh to India:

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 430