Bangladesh ships apparels to China

Bangladesh has started shipment of apparels to China, another big exporter of textiles and clothing, local daily The Financial Express said Sunday.

A few of Bangladesh's knitwear exporters, who participated in the 2005 China Export and Import International Trade Fair in Kunming, Yunnan Province, had received orders worth around 2 million US dollars.

"China is definitely a potential market for us, but it is not an easy market," said Fazlul Haque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Many analysts view penetrating into Chinese market might discourage U.S. Congress to pass a bill allowing Bangladesh and 14 other least developed countries duty and quota free access of their products.

Haque argued that Bangladesh's export to China should not be taken as an excuse for disqualifying the country from getting duty- and-quota-free access into the U.S. market.

"We are selling apparels to China with the same prices we charge for the western markets," he said.

Haque urged the government to help exporters rent display centers in Chinese cities to attract the buyers there. He also called upon the government to open branches of Bangladeshi commercial banks in China to make transactions easier.

Bangladesh fetches more than 6 billion dollars a year through apparel export, mainly from European Union and U.S. markets.

Source: Xinhua