Bangladesh’s export receipts in fiscal 2018 were up 5.81 percent from a year earlier. But constraints hindered it from exploiting its full potential. The major constraints were low productivity, poor infrastructure and low price negotiation capacity.

Bangladesh may lose 1.6 billion dollars worth of apparel business from the EU once the country graduates from the least-developed country bracket to developing country in 2027 as local exporters have to pay eight percent to ten percent duty upon export to the EU.

Currently, the EU is the largest export destination for Bangladesh, accounting for 21 billion dollars worth of shipments.

Every year Bangladeshi exporters face a five percent higher cost of production for different reasons and secondly buyers always pay five per cent to six percent lower prices due to the exporters' low price negotiation capacity.

Currently, Bangladesh garment shipments face 15.62 percent duty in the US and yet they perform well. Garment manufacturers are therefore confident that if they can perform well in the US, they will also be able to perform strongly in the EU even after facing a ten percent duty upon graduation.

Bangladesh hopes to capture a significant share of the garment business that is moving out of China.