An Analysis of the Composition and Trends in the Foreign Trade of Bangladesh and India

Abstract

Increasing foreign trade has been instrumental in triggering rapid economic growth of developing countries since the onset of this millennium. The developing countries, particularly, have begun to realize the potential benefits vested in foreign trade and this is reflected in the rising trend of the volume of their total exports r eceipts and imports payments.With India being the largest as well as fasted growing economy in the south Asian subcontinent, Bangladesh owns a naturally higher probability of being obvious trade partners to India because of the shared land borders and waters. For higher growth and economic development of Bangladesh, the importance of a higher economic integration with India, by engaging in higher volumes of trade, cannot be ignored. Data from the annual publications of export receipts and import payments of Bangladesh, reflect that the trade with India has shown growth, in terms of total volume of exports to and imports from the country. Data from the same sources also reflects the incidence of a higher dependence on India for imports, over exports for Bangladesh, with the composition of the trade portfolio of Bangladesh with India being less diverse and dominated by an abundance of primary products and a lack of service goods, for the year 2013