Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports to Turkey have declined by 7.67 per cent in the first 10 months of the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Fall in exports earning is mainly due to two reasons: Turkey’s economic slowdown and Turkey’s recent decision to impose duty on apparel imports. In September 2011, Turkey imposed a duty at a rate of 17 per cent on apparel imports from the least developed countries, including Bangladesh, mainly to safeguard its readymade garment and textile industry. Since then, Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports to Turkey have been declining.

Following readymade garment products, jute and jute products are one of Bangladesh’s major export items to the Turkish market. Export earnings from these two products also saw a downtrend in the 2015-2016 fiscal year. In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the country’s export earnings from readymade garments to Turkey decreased by 21.58 per cent from the previous fiscal year.

In recent times Turkey has been trying to increase the capacity to meet the domestic demand for readymade garments and as such a duty was recently imposed on imports. Shipments dropped to $488.08 million in fiscal 2014-15 from $622.37 million the previous year. The Turkish economy is struggling due to the refugee crisis in Europe.