The government is not ready right now to settle a South Korea’s proposal for duty concessions for its eight products in the Bangladesh’s market because of time constraints on the current cabinet, commerce ministry officials said. They said the government had already conveyed its inability to settle the issue to South Korea, saying that a decision would be taken later after proper evaluation of the proposal through which the country sought duty benefits for its eight products under Asia Pacific Trade Agreement and offered, in exchange, duty concessions for 13 products of Bangladesh.
Officials said the commerce ministry informed the country that it was not possible for the ministry to get the proposal approved from the cabinet due to time shortage as the cabinet is set to be dissolved any moment ahead of the national elections.
A high official of the ministry told New Age on Saturday that an approval from the cabinet was mandatory for providing such tariff concessions.
Bangladesh has already prepared an offer list to give duty benefits to other countries under the APTA and the cabinet has approved the list, he said.
‘The ministry will require cabinet’s approval, if it wants to make any change in the list. The process is a time consuming one. The ministry will not get enough time to complete the process as the incumbent cabinet is set to be dissolved any time,’ he said.
Officials of the ministry, however, said the government did not reject the proposal.
‘We will prepare an alternative request list containing new products as the products mentioned in their [ South Korea’s ] list are usually entitled to get duty- and quota-free market access to the country under a scheme of the World Trade Organisation,’ said another trade official.
‘The ministry also needs time to conduct a thorough examination of both the offer list and the request list of South Korea to assess the impact of the proposed tariff cuts on the local industries and the revenue earnings.’
According to the South Korea’s proposal, Bangladesh will provide duty concessions for woven fabrics of synthetic yarn (containing 85 per cent non-textured polyester filaments), fabrics of elastomeric yarn, and six other products of iron and steel sectors.
Bangladeshi importers now have to pay duties ranging from 10 per cent to 25 per cent for the products.
If Bangladesh includes the products in its offer list, it will have to reduce duties further on imports of the products.
In exchange, South Korea will reduce duties by 50 per cent from the existing 25 per cent to 30 per cent duties on products such as trunks, different kinds of cases, containers, bags, purses, boxes of leather or leather with outer surface of plastics and textile materials, warp-pile fabrics of cotton and different types of silk fabrics.
Currently, Bangladesh, as a least developed country, enjoys duty-free facility for around 91 per cent of its products in the South Korean market.
It also enjoys duty privileges for some other products in the market under the APTA.
-With New Age input
