Foreign trade figures of Bangladesh

Foreign Trade in Figures

Trade represented 28% of Bangladeshi GDP in 2021 (World Bank, 2023). The main export products are clothes, raw jute and its derived products, leather, fish and frozen seafood. Bangladesh mainly imports machinery and equipment, chemical products, steel & metals, cement, food and oil derived products (OEC).

The country's main export partners are the European Union, including Germany at 15% of all exports), the United States (20%), the United Kingdom (11%) and China (2.3%). Bangladesh imports mainly from China (22% of all imports) , India (13%) , Singapore (9.5%) and Hong Kong with 5.6%. The country acts as a passageway between the centre of India and its Eastern provinces. Customs duties in Bangladesh are relatively high; however, the country is implementing a series of measures to reduce its trade barriers, including concessional tariffs, a customs duty recovery system and export processing zones as well as high-level negotiation with key countries. The country has benefited from more simplified procedures and regulations to exports its products to the European Union as an LDC (least developed country).

In 2021, exports of goods from Bangladesh increased to 44.22 billion USD (from 33.60 billion the previous year) and imports of goods increased to 80.44 billion USD (from 52.80 billion in 2020). Since becoming independent, Bangladesh has had a negative trade balance, with its deficit being financed by international aid and expatriate transfers. WTO estimated the 2021 trade balance to be -35.91 billion USD from -18.47 billion USD in 2020. With regards to services, the imports for 2021 were 10.87 billion USD, while the exports were 7.47 billion USD, leading to an overall trade balance of -32.52 billion USD.