Leading knitwear exporting items of Bangladesh in China
Bangladesh’s export of knitwear items to China grew by 54.33 percent to US$ 261.53 million from US$ 169.46 million in between CY 2015-2019, where, the below-mentioned top 25 knitwear items (Table-1) led Bangladesh to take a better bite of the pie.
Among the top 25 exporting knitwear items, as showed with green color in Table-1, 14 items experienced double-digit CAGR while 2 items showed staggering three-digit and 1 item registered four-digit CAGR in last five years, turning out these 3 items to be Bangladesh’s game-changing emerging knitwear items in China at next couple of years along with other items.
| Table-1: Top 25 knitwear products exported by Bangladesh to China with CAGR during CY 2015-2019 (US$ in ‘000). Data Source: ITC Trade Map. Data Calculation: Latifee, E. H., and Uddin, M. M., 2020.
Data Source: China DF facility for LDCs |
||||||||
| Sl# | HS Code
(8 Digit Level) |
Product label | CY 2015 | CY 2016 | CY 2017 | CY 2018 | CY 2019 | CAGR |
| 1. | ‘61091000 | T-shirts, singlets & other vests, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 64,332 | 78,578 | 81,993 | 108,104 | 112,521 | 15% |
| 2. | ‘61102000 | Jerseys, pullovers, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 20,111 | 28,072 | 27,675 | 30,901 | 33,212 | 13% |
| 3. | ‘61103000 | Jerseys, pullovers, etc, of man-made fibres, knitted or crocheted | 19,565 | 24,252 | 23,423 | 22,227 | 26,882 | 8% |
| 4. | ‘61112000 | Babies’ garments, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 8,013 | 8,440 | 7,702 | 10,551 | 11,006 | 8% |
| 5. | ‘61034200 | Men’s or boys’ trousers, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 7,005 | 8,298 | 5,874 | 7,563 | 10,868 | 12% |
| 6. | ‘61142000 | Garments of cotton, knitted or crocheted, nes | 933 | 2,585 | 2,344 | 5,992 | 9,262 | 78% |
| 7. | ‘61051000 | Men’s or boys’ shirts of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 5,958 | 7,888 | 7,847 | 8,310 | 9,053 | 11% |
| 8. | ‘61099090 | T-shirts, singlets, etc, of other textiles, nes, knitted/crocheted | 18,117 | 5,972 | 12,967 | 6,120 | 7,916 | -19% |
| 9. | ‘61071100 | Men’s or boys’ underpants & briefs of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 1,010 | 1,450 | 2,854 | 3,059 | 7,733 | 66% |
| 10. | ‘61044200 | Dresses of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 2,429 | 4,542 | 4,448 | 6,655 | 7,619 | 33% |
| 11. | ‘61046200 | Women’s or girls’ trousers, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 5,883 | 6,997 | 7,017 | 9,295 | 7,585 | 7% |
| 12. | ‘61034300 | Men’s or boys’ trousers, etc, of synthetic fibres, knitted/crocheted | 329 | 395 | 628 | 1,710 | 2,265 | 62% |
| 13. | ‘61082100 | Women’s or girls’ briefs & panties of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 526 | 884 | 1,416 | 1,339 | 1,243 | 24% |
| 14. | ‘61044400 | Dresses of artificial fibres, knitted or crocheted | 725 | 1,427 | 1,638 | 899 | 1,171 | 13% |
| 15. | ‘61013000 | Men’s or boys’ coats, etc, of man-made fibres, knitted or crocheted | 465 | 815 | 808 | 802 | 1,087 | 24% |
| 16. | ‘61012000 | Men’s or boys’ coats, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 470 | 1,191 | 1,033 | 2,053 | 1,064 | 23% |
| 17. | ‘61046300 | Women’s or girls’ trousers, etc, of synthetic, knitted or crocheted | 764 | 678 | 797 | 1,261 | 997 | 7% |
| 18. | ‘61143000 | Garments of man-made fibres, knitted or crocheted, nes | 458 | 667 | 491 | 873 | 947 | 20% |
| 19. | ‘61083100 | Women’s or girls’ nighties…, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 568 | 471 | 462 | 778 | 774 | 8% |
| 20. | ‘61033200 | Men’s or boys’ jackets & blazers of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 2,441 | 2,809 | 1,405 | 1,061 | 688 | -27% |
| 21. | ‘61022000 | Woman’s or girls’ coats, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 1 | 32 | 132 | 591 | 599 | 395% |
| 22. | ‘61079100 | Men’s or boys’ dressing gowns, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 1 | 3 | 11 | 391 | 540 | 2,611% |
| 23. | ‘61061000 | Women’s or girls’ blouses, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 737 | 808 | 472 | 921 | 531 | -8% |
| 24. | ‘61161000 | Gloves, impregnated… with plastics or rubber, knitted or crocheted | 2 | 0 | 121 | 839 | 436 | 284% |
| 25. | ‘61072100 | Men’s or boys’ pyjamas of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 457 | 539 | 710 | 365 | 382 | -4% |
The ambit of tapping knitwear exports freshly by Bangladesh in China
It can be inferred from the cross-tabulation showed in Table-2 that we have an incredible opportunity to catch up more share of the pie addressing the top 10 imported knitwear items by China from the World.
For instance, in the Women’s or girl’s trousers category we may augment our export by 86.47 times and in total for top 10 knitwear items, Bangladesh can accumulate an amount of US$ 2.33 billion from the knitwear sector—if done, which will be up by 8.90 times of present knitwear exports by Bangladesh to China.
| Table-2: Cross tabulation for Bangladesh’s untapped opportunity to clutch the knitwear market in China. Data Source: ITC Trade Map. Data Calculation: Latifee, E. H., and Uddin, M. M., 2020. | ||||||
| Sl# | HS Code (8 Digit Level) | Product Label | Import by China in 2019 (US$ in ‘000) | Export by Bangladesh in 2019 (US$ in ‘000) | Opportunity Value for Bangladesh (US$ in ‘000) | Amplification
can be done in the niche knitwear items |
| 1. | ‘61091000 | T-shirts, singlets & other vests, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 719,565 | 112,521 | 607,044 | 5.39 times |
| 2. | ‘61102000 | Jerseys, pullovers, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 602,741 | 33,212 | 569,529 | 17.15 times |
| 3. | ‘61103000 | Jerseys, pullovers, etc, of man-made fibres, knitted or crocheted | 310,282 | 26,882 | 283,400 | 10.54 times |
| 4. | ‘61099090 | T-shirts, singlets, etc, of other textiles, nes, knitted/crocheted | 234,661 | 7,916 | 226,745 | 28.64 times |
| 5. | ‘61101100 | Jerseys, pullovers, etc, of wool, knitted or crocheted | 175,946 | 60493 | 115,453 | 1.91 times |
| 6. | ‘61034200 | Men’s or boys’ trousers, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 142,719 | 10,868 | 131,851 | 12.13 times |
| 7. | ‘61051000 | Men’s or boys’ shirts of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 141,392 | 9,053 | 132,339 | 14.62 times |
| 8. | ‘61112000 | Babies’ garments, etc, of cotton, knitted or crocheted | 97,560 | 11,006 | 86,554 | 7.86 times |
| 9. | ‘61034300 | Men’s or boys’ trousers, etc, of synthetic fibres, knitted/crocheted | 90,030 | 2,265 | 87,765 | 38.75 times |
| 10. | ‘61046300 | Women’s or girls’ trousers, etc of synthetic, knitted or crocheted | 87,211 | 997 | 86,214 | 86.47 times |
Concluding remarks
It is evident from this three-sequel long multi-faceted analysis that Bangladesh has a true opportunity now to augment knitwear exports as the country is now getting more privileges than ever before.
At the post-declaration of China’s 97 percent DF facility, we are now eligible to export most of our top knitwear items to China with zero tariffs which lay 6 percent to 10 percent for many other countries under the MFN scheme.
Now, it is high time for joining in the jubilation and export escalation of the new inclination of zero-tariff schedule for Bangladesh. If Bangladesh can get into the market properly, the country may fetch billions of dollars just from the Chinese market by exporting knitwear items that will certainly support Bangladesh continuing bullish economic growth in the next couple of years amid COVID-19 havoc.
Major References:
- ITC Trade Map, 2020. Available online at, https://www.trademap.org/
- Office of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic China, 2020. The product list of zero tariff treatment of 97% of the tax products originating from Bangladesh to China since 1st July 2020. Available online at, http://gss.mof.gov.cn/gzdt/zhengcefabu/201912/P020191230547817604455.pdf
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 2017. Handbook on the Special and Preferential Tariff Scheme of China for Least Developed Countries. Available online at, https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/itcdtsbmisc76_en.pdf
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 2020. ASEAN-China Free Trade Area: Building Strong Economic Partnerships. Available online at, https://www.asean.org/storage/images/2015/October/outreach-document/Edited%20ACFTA.pdf
Views expressed here are not from the organization that the authors represent.
