Govt looks to cut trade gap with Malaysia

The potential of Bangladesh's exports to Malaysia remains untapped due to the high duty imposed on goods sent from the country, according to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.

Meanwhile, the value of imports from Malaysia more than doubled in the last fiscal year, indicating that bilateral trade is heavily tilted in favour of the southeast Asian nation.

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So, Bangladesh has already sent a list of goods for duty waiver in a bid to export more products to Malaysia and thereby reduce the large trade gap between the two countries.

"If a duty waiver is provided on those products, then the trade gap may narrow to some extent," Munshi said after meeting with Haznah Md Hashim, the high commissioner of Malaysia to Bangladesh, at the minister's secretariat office in Dhaka yesterday.

As Bangladesh imports vegetable fat and palm oil in bulk from Malaysia, the balance of trade between the two countries is heavily tilted towards the latter, he added.

Bangladesh imported goods worth $3.28 billion from Malaysia in fiscal 2021-22 while exporting goods worth $337.81 million at the same time, according to data from the commerce ministry.

In fiscal 2020-21, the value of Bangladesh's imports from Malaysia stood at $1.57 billion while exports totalled $306.57 million, the data shows.

Apart from vegetable fat and palm oil, Bangladesh imports petroleum products, vegetable products, prepared foodstuffs, wood and articles of wood, and chemicals from Malaysia.

On the other hand, Bangladesh exports mainly garment items, jute yarn and twine, raw jute, leather and footwear, shrimp and engineering products to the island nation.

Hashim said the popularity of Malaysian cars has been gaining worldwide but Bangladesh cannot import them in large volumes due to the country's high tariff on motor vehicles.

With this backdrop, the high commissioner demanded a reduction in the import duty levied on cars from Malaysia.

She also said that there is ample opportunity to increase bilateral trade, which is something Malaysia wants to do.