Turkey's apparel imports from Bangladesh to decline

30 Mar '12

1 min read

Readymade garment (RMG) exports from Bangladesh to Turkey are likely to witness a sharp decline of nearly 50 percent year-on-year, if Turkey continues to levy 17 percent safeguard duty on apparel imports from Bangladesh, according to experts.

Since September last year, Turkey has imposed safeguard duty on imports of clothing items from least developed countries (LDCs), including Bangladesh, to protect its domestic parallel industries.

Turkey's knitwear sector produces enough goods to meet the domestic demand. The country is also a leading apparel exporter to the US. However, the RMG products exported by Bangladesh to Turkey fall under HS codes 61 and 62, which are low cost items in Turkish market and are not produced in the Eurasian country, experts note.

Since Bangladeshi garment items do not fall under any category for which Turkey needs to protect its domestic market, there should not be any reason for Turkey to continue levying of safeguard duty on Bangladeshi apparel imports, experts add.

They opine that the continuation of safeguard duty by Turkey would result in around 50 percent decrease in Bangladeshi clothing item exports to Turkey.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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