BGMEA seeks quota-free apparel exports to India.

As per Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), exporters have almost made use of the duty-free quota to export around 8 million pieces of apparels to India.

BGMEA stated the same in their letter to former Indian Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, seeking his support for lifting the quota imposition.

Currently, merely 19,000 pieces of apparels are left to be assigned for the year 2010, informed BGEMA President, Abdus Salam Murshedy. Aiyar left Dhaka early this week, after a four-day visit.

Already, during the first six months of the year 2010, the quota is nearing completion. Murshedy said that, a demand for quota-free facility for apparel production from the Indian government has been made, as exports to India are rising steeply.

In order to bring down the trade gap between Bangladesh and India, under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Bangladesh had inked a deal with India in September 2007, to export 8 million apparel pieces under the duty-free regulation in a year.

Moreover, as per Murshedy, the apparel sector, employs over 35 lakh workers and is a source of livelihood for Bangladesh’s economy. Hence, it took the duty-free RMG export opportunity as the onset of vast possibilities. In the past, despite numerous chances, apparel exporters failed to meet with their whole quota owing to a number of barriers, one of them being the 18 percent excise duty, which was imposed by India.

However, the situation now has improved vastly and Murshedy informs that, they are happy to notice that, already by the first half of the current fiscal, almost the entire quota limit has been made use of. Therefore, they are now hoping that, further measures are taken to lift the quota limit.

Source : Fibre2Fashion