The Turkish government intends to impose 32 to 37 per cent anti-dumping duty on Bangladesh's ready made garments, which account for 80 per cent of the country's 16.2 billion dollars annual merchandise shipment.
Export of any product is considered "dumping" if a company sells the product at a price lower than the price it normally charges in its home market, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
The move comes at a time when Dhaka and Ankara have taken decisive steps to bolster trade ties, looking forward to taking two-way trade to as high as 3.0 billion dollars by 2015.
In 2010, Bangladesh pulled in 970 million dollars by exporting apparels to Turkey alone-much of it was sourced by Turkish buyers like Collins, Tema, Mevi, Collizione, Defactor, Mevi Jeans, Cons Jeans, Akin Textile, and Alkan Tex.
A garments exporter said Monday the recent decision by the Turkey Council of Ministers to ratify the anti-dumping duty proposal as early as 18th of this month may pose serious threat to Bangladeshi apparel industries involved in export to Turkey.
"There are 380 garments factories in Dhaka and 120 in Chittagong including subcontract firms, which will be affected if this decision is finalised," said the exporter who preferred to remain unidentified because of the potential reprisal.
"As per information from Turkey, from January till June we have an order of an approximate 600 to 650 million US dollars," he said, adding "all of which may end up in stock-lot."
Data available with the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) showed Bangladesh earned a total of 16.20 billion dollars exporting goods to European countries in 2010 while in the first six months of the current fiscal year the amount stood US $10.26 billion.
In November last, Bangladesh apparel sector was just assured of benefitting from Europe's relaxed rules of origin for the least developed countries (LDCs) under the generalised system of preferences (GSP) in textile trade.
The new rules of origin (RoO) adopted by the European Union has been in force since January 1.
For decades, Bangladeshi exports including apparels have enjoyed duty-free access to the market of the European Union under its trade preferences scheme for poorer countries.
The biggest change is that single-stage processing (manufactured from fabric) will be allowed in many cases, instead of only two-stage processing (manufactured from yarn).
The exporter said he was just "astonished at such a decision as Bangladesh is now enjoying GSP facilities as an LDC" and any decision that should be applied for China or India should not be applicable for Bangladesh.
"Anti-dumping duty to be imposed by Turkey will be 60 per cent for China, 40 for India and Sri Lanka and 32-35 for Bangladesh," he said.
When asked, commerce secretary Ghulam Hussain said he was not informed about the decision "officially."
"We've heard the news but have not received any official document in this regard. We are examining the matter," Mr Hussain told the FE.
Bangladesh now exports garments of 80 per cent local fabrics to EU countries. Yarn and fabrics of these garments are manufactured by member firms of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).
Major export items from Bangladesh to Turkey include knitwear, woven garment products, raw jute and jute goods, hides and skins, crockery, cutlery and handicrafts.
On the other hand, goods imported from Turkey include machinery and mechanical appliances, base metal, textile and textile articles, vehicles, aircraft, vegetable products, mineral products, plastic and rubber products and prepared foodstuff.
- Source: FE, Tue, 18/01/2011
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