Bangladesh Asks India To Cancel Zero Tariff Clothing Import Quota

The Bangladesh garment manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that the exporters had almost exhausted the quota of 8 million tariff free exports to India.

BGMEA said they wrote to former India minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, asking him to support the cancellation of the quota.

Abdus Salam Murshedy, the president of the BGEMA, said that at present, there are 19000 pieces of clothing left in 2010.

In the first 6 months of 2010, the quota was basically exhausted.

Murshedy said he asked the India government to cancel the garment quota because India's exports rose sharply.

According to the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Bangladesh signed an agreement with India in September 2007 to reduce the trade balance between Bangladesh and India, and exported 8 million garments to India every year with zero tariffs.

In addition, Murshedy said that clothing industry employs more than 3 million 500 thousand people and is a source of life in Bangladesh's economy.

Therefore, the export of duty-free garments has created huge employment opportunities.

In the past, although there were many opportunities, due to many obstacles, clothing exporters failed to make full use of the quota. One obstacle was India's 18% consumption tax.

But now the situation has improved greatly. Murshedy has announced that they are happy to see that almost all the quota has been used up in the first half of this fiscal year.

Therefore, they now hope that India will further take measures to eliminate the quota restrictions.