India’s friendship fraught with unfriendliness
Published: 01:05, Apr 14,2017
‘FRIENDLY’ India’s latest imposition of the protectionist tariff of anti-dumping duty on the import of hydrogen peroxide from Bangladesh seems to be fraught with a pattern of unfriendliness. Such an Indian move appears so when it is viewed against that fact that India earlier imposed anti-dumping duty on the import of jute goods in January and initiated a move in March to impose the tariff on the import of fishing nets from Bangladesh.
This could constitute more of a ploy to weaken Bangladesh’s export to India and less of a step genuinely arising out of India’s interest because exporters and officials here in Bangladesh are of the view that the Indian procedure of the imposition of the anti-dumping duty is flawed. This is concerning especially in that India comes to impose the protectionist tariff on Bangladeshi goods which are competitive on the Indian market, which is the largest destination of the products in question. A case in example is that of Samuda Chemical Complex Ltd which has a yearly production of 12,000 tonnes of hydrogen peroxide, used as a textile chemical, a half of which is exported to India because of its competitive price. An anti-dumping duty of $47 on a tonne will push up the current price of $380 a tonne on an average to $427, dealing a blow to its competitiveness on the Indian market.
India imposed the anti-dumping duty immediately after Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had on Monday returned from a four-day visit to India, when Hasina requested India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to withdraw the anti-dumping duty India imposed of the import of jute goods from Bangladesh, with Modi giving an assurance of looking into the matter. Bangladesh’s problems long outstanding with India include border death, Teesta water sharing, tariff and non-tariff barriers on Bangladesh’s export to India, international river-linking project with a dangerous consequence on Bangladesh and approval of power trade from Nepal through India.
While India has not attended to any of these issues and appears to be unwilling to, Bangladesh has consecutively given concessions by way of almost free transshipment, power corridor through the Bangladesh territory and trade in power and energy tilted towards India. In such a situation, India’s coming down on import from Bangladesh seems to be another manifestation of harming Bangladesh’s trade and economy. If India does not resolve the problem of anti-dumping duty, Bangladesh should take up the issue with the World Trade Organisation as it did in 2004 after such a duty on the import of lead-acid battery from Bangladesh in 2002, after which India withdrew the duty in 2005.
While India should not strain its relation with Bangladesh with some harmful moves, which are highly likely to consolidate an all-pervasive anti-India sentiment among Bangladeshis, Bangladesh should also stand up against Indian moves of constricting Bangladesh’s economy by taking up such issues more forcefully bilaterally, regionally and globally. Bangladesh should have its ground readied to fight the menacing Indian tariff barriers by going to the World Trade Organisation if the situation so demands.
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