GSP FACILITY
Russia advises Bangladesh to prepare product list for Eurasian Union
Russia has advised Bangladesh to prepare a list of products for seeking GSP facility in the markets of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, commerce ministry officials said.
Responding to a proposal of providing GSP facility to the Bangladeshi products including readymade garments, Russia informed that the country alone could not provide generalised system of preferences to its market to any country as it is a member of the same customs union along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, the officials said.
At the end 2012, Bangladesh sought GSP facility from Russia for 57 products, mostly RMG items, in a bid to enter the big Russian market and boost overall export to the country.
‘But in April, Russia advised us to prepare a list of products and submit the list seeking GSP facility to the three countries,’ a high commerce ministry official told New Age last week.
Following the Russia’s suggestion, the commerce ministry has taken an initiative to revise the list and asked Bangladesh Tariff Commission to prepare a new list considering the export potential in the other two countries, he said.
He said that Bangladesh had been trying to get GSP facility particularly for apparel items in the Russian market since 2000.
In 2010, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan formed the Eurasian Customs Union and since then the countries have been following common external tariff structure for other countries.
As a member of the union, any country alone can not provide additional tariff facility to other countries.
BTC officials said that they started modifying the list keeping Belarus and Kazakhstan in mind.
Products from the original list may not be changed very much as the Russian market is the most important for the Bangladeshi exporters, they said.
Currently, some Bangladeshi products including meat, frozen food, fish, jute and jute goods, are getting GSP facility in the Russian market but main export items such as knitwear, woven, textile, leather goods and footwear products remain out of the facility.
The Bangladeshi RMG sector, however, enjoyed the GSP facility in the Russian market till 1997.
In the previous list BTC included items like man’s and boy’s shirt, T-shirt, jerseys, pullovers, cardigans and waistcoats, women’s and girls’ skirts, trousers, shorts, toilet and kitchen linen and other knitted or non-knitted apparel and clothing accessories, ceramic products, ships, and some pharmaceuticals items including insulin.
Under the GSP programme, the developed countries provide the least developed countries the facility of exporting their product duty-free or at reduced duty.
According to the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Russia might be one of the most important and lucrative destinations for the Bangladeshi knitwear products.
The Russian market could reduce Bangladesh’s dependence on European and US markets and boost export at least by 20 per cent within a year of securing the GSP regime in the Russian market, the association said.
Belarus and Kazakhstan may also be other important markets for Bangladeshi RMG products.
In 2010-11, Russia imported $2.5 billion worth of knitwear products, almost half of them imported from China. Bangladesh got only 3.7 per cent of the Russian’s import.
There is same situation in terms of importing woven garments by Russia. In 2010, Russia imported woven garments worth $2.9 billion and Bangladesh could catch only 1.6 per cent of the Russia’s total import.
Currently, the Bangladeshi exporters have to pay 20 per cent duty on export of knitwear products to Russia, in addition to other tariff and non-tariff barriers.
-With New Age input
