The New Nation - Internet Edition

ACCORDING to a recent print media report, exporters from our nearest neighbour have dumped 73,462 tonnes of sugar into Bangladesh market in the last five months from July to November. Import of sugar from India increased five times during the period compared to the same period of the previous financial year as revealed by official figures. 'Indian exporters are dumping a large quantity of substandard sugar in Bangladesh posing serious threat to consumers health,' the media reported quoting the industry sources and consumer rights activists. Allegations are there that violating the antidumping suits filed with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by Australia and Thailand, these exporters are exporting substandard sugar to different countries including Bangladesh. Reportedly, the consumer rights activists demanded immediate blocking of such spoilt sugar reportedly having 'intolerable level of hydrous', a deadly toxic chemical in order to save consumers and the local industries as well.

Bangladeshi importers procure sugar mainly from small Indian mills, which use toxic hydrogen peroxide for whitening the product and thus produce hydrous. The government has given clear instruction to the authorities concerned, particularly the customs at the ports, to carry out tests on every consignment of sugar in laboratories before giving clearance for import. But these orders have not been carried out properly at the land port, as the land port has neither enough space to store all import consignments nor testing laboratory facilities. The state-owned Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) and the private sector sugar refineries also urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to immediately ban the import of toxic sugar through the land ports that lack testing facilities.

The local sugar producers made a representation to the NBR with the request for the government to raise duty on the import of refined sugar to check entry of substandard sugar. If the government did not immediately raise import duty on finished sugar, local sugar industry as a whole would collapse. At the same meeting with the NBR, the BSFIC also conveyed similar concern adding that there was $65 subsidy on every tonne of sugar exported to Bangladesh. Moreover, interest free export loans were being provided to make finished sugar cheaper than even raw sugar in international market. An increase in dumping of sugar threatened the first generation refiners that started operations just one and a half years back, the media quoting a raw sugar refiner reported. The government, on the other hand, has retained import duty on finished sugar at Tk 5,000 per tonne and lowered duty on raw sugar by Tk 1,750 per tonne to Tk 4,000 in the current fiscal year. The sugar industry owners demanded duty on finished sugar at the rate of Tk 10,000 per ton. If anti-dumping measures are not taken, local sugar industry would never be viable to fight subsidised and substandard imported sugar. Sugar exporters of Thailand and Australia, the world's two leading sugar-exporting countries, also lodged similar complaints with the WTO.