Dhaka, July 14, 2008 – A new database and ranking tool launched by the World Bank shows that in 2007 most developing countries continued to improve trade policies supporting greater integration. Data in the World Trade Indicators 2008 – Benchmarking Policy and Performance, produced by the World Bank Institute, also show that, over the past decade, countries with lower barriers tended to have stronger, more consistent trade and export performance. The finding shows Bangladeshhave very high tariff and non-tariff trade compared to most of the countries. While high-income countries still have the world’s lowest tariff barriers, many developing countries are converging rapidly. Bangladesh still maintains a very restrictive trade policy. Bangladesh has ranked 113th and 107th in terms of Trade Policy and Institutional Environment respectively out of 125 countries studied. Bangladesh ranked slightly better for External environment where its position was 59th out of 125 countries. "Bangladesh has the potential to become a middle income country by its own dynamic performance. For that to happen Bangladesh must deal more seriously with its restrictive policy, poor infrastructure and red tapism ” said Xian Zhu Country Director, “Bangladesh can thrive in the global economy by lowering trade barriers and improving logistic services ” Despite South Asian region has had the largest reduction in tariffs since late 1990s, it has still the most restrictive tariff policies followed by the Sub-Saharan Africa. Within the South Asian region, Bangladesh’s trade restrictiveness is one of the highest. South Asian countries that have opened up with the rest of the world remain closed to each other. Intraregional trade in South Asia is less than 2 percent of GDP, compared to more than 20 percent for East Asia . Although overall trade restrictiveness has declined since 1990s, agricultural sector is still subject to high trade restrictiveness in both the developed and developing country. Three-fourth of the net food importer countries including Bangladesh are low income countries. With the global food price increase, a strong restriction on food trade has been hurting the low income countries most. Services trade liberalization could deliver large benefits, but movement has been slow in this area, especially in low-income countries. Improvements in low-income countries’ domestic institutions would boost their export performance, particularly in manufacturing and services, and help support new markets and new products. With trade costs now higher than tariffs in many countries, improvement in trade logistics in developing countries would deliver high payoffs in improved trade performance. These observations emerge from the World Trade Indicators (WTI), a unique new database and ranking tool that allows benchmarking and comparisons among 210 countries and customs territories, across multiple trade-related indicators. The easy-to-use web-based tool is aimed at helping policymakers, negotiators and researchers assess each country’s performance relative to others’ as well as relative to its historical achievements. The WTI database brings together key trade-related indicators from the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the World Bank. The database also provides country briefs on developing countries, while its companion publication summarizes global patterns in trade policies, institutions, and outcomes revealed by the database. “Effective assessments of trade policies and outcomes are dependent on good-quality data,” said Gianni Zanini, the World Bank Institute’s Trade Program Leader. “In compiling this database, we found gaps, indicating that countries and international agencies need to improve the quality and collection of trade-related data, as they are vital to sound policymaking.” Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director, Center for Policy Dialogue and Professor A K M Atiqur Rahman, North South University also shared their comments on the report. The WTI overview report, country briefs and Trade-At-A-Glance (TAAG) tables, full database, and user’s guide are available at:www.worldbank.org/wti2008 For more information on the World Bank in Bangladesh, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/bd # # # Contacts In Washington: Christopher Neal, 202-473-4029 cneal1@worldbank.org Ekaterina Svirina, 202-458-1042 esvirina@worldbank.org In Dhaka: Mehrin A. Mahbub (880-2) 8159001 mmahbub@worldbank.org |
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