March 17, 2006	Friday	Safar 16, 1427

DHAKA, March 16: Bangladesh’s exports to the European Union (EU) dipped nearly euro 200 million or 4.2 per cent to euro 4,092m in the year 2005 from euro 4,274m in 2004, according to an annual external trade review by the European Commission (EC) released last week.

Local exporters and analysts attributed the decline, which followed a 17 per cent growth in 2004, to inadequate infrastructure and a raging price war among the apparel exporters.

But members of the visiting EC delegation said in Dhaka on Wednesday that the decline in Bangladesh’s export earnings was the result of transition and emergence of new dimensions in the global apparel market after the elimination of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA).

The EU, which provides a duty free and quota-free access to all products from the least developed countries (LDCs), except arms and munitions, under the EBA (everything but arms) regulation of its generalised system of preference, is the largest export destination for Bangladesh.