Abstracts
WTO and Governance
Panel: Linkages of Trade with Development and Poverty reduction (TDP)
 Trade Liberalization and Poverty: Bangladesh Experience
Atiur Rahman and Abu Eusuf*
Consistent with the principles of the market economy and agreement with WTO, Bangladesh has been pursuing a liberal trade policy since 1990s. Trade policy of Bangladesh is now more open than it was before. The liberalization programme focused on simplification of import procedures, reduction in quantitative restrictions, rationalization and diminution of import tariffs, and maintaining a competitive exchange rate. Currently, three-fourths of the export earnings of Bangladesh come from ready-made garments. Trade GDP ratio increased to 33 percent in 2000 from only 17 percent in the mid-80s. On the other hand, poverty alleviation has been a focal point of every successive government in Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. Bangladesh has shown significant improvement in social indicators of human development over the last one decade. Poverty was reduced modestly with 1 percent per annum. But how trade is good for poverty reduction has been a research issue for a long time. Besides, Trade has a specific role to play to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) particularly to reduce absolute poverty by half by the year 2015. Role of trade cannot be denied in this era of globalization, more in-depth research is required to look into these issues purposively. There are various dimensions to the linkages between trade and poverty reduction. The paper will make an attempt to look into the various dimensions of the issue. The paper will review whether trade related policies adopted by Bangladesh fit with the overall policy of poverty reduction and articulate a coherence agenda vis-à-vis trade and development issues that can help in reducing poverty.
* The authors are Chairman of Unnayan Shamannay and Assistant Professor of Development Studies Department, University of Dhaka respectively. |
