The Foreign Trade of Bangladesh: Its Composition, Performance, Trend, and Policy

Despite structural limitations in the Bangladesh economy, the export sector performed well throughout the 1990s. The export growth rate of Bangladesh was higher than that of the world and the SAARC countries. However, the balance of trade of Bangladesh was always in deficit and the trade deficit with India is huge. The export share of primary commodities has decreased while that of manufactured commodities has increased over the years. The growth rate of manufactured commodities is better than that of primary commodities. The import share of principal primary commodities has declined while that of principal industrial and capital goods has slightly increased over the past years. The striking features of Bangladesh’s exports are commodity and market concentration. To overcome the problem, there is no alternative but to diversify exports and improve quality. To improve the country’s overall trade balance, especially trade balance with India, some policy recommendations are offered in this paper.