Bangladesh Bank has announced a ‘Merchandise Trade’ policy to diversify exports. From now on, like Hong Kong and Singapore, traders can buy goods or services from another country and export them to third countries. Foreign Exchange Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank issued a circular in this regard and sent it to the authorized dealers for immediate execution on Wednesday. Read MCCI-PRI for raising EDF to $10 billion to achieve $80 billion export target The central bank circular stated, “In accordance with export policy in force, a trade for which goods or services procured from a country, are shipped or delivered directly to a third country is defined as ‘merchandising trade’. To facilitate transactional services by ADs to their ‘merchandising, trade’ customers, it has been decided to formulate a set of operational guidelines.” This type of business is gaining popularity worldwide. Specific policies in this regard were necessary for Bangladesh. Due to the new policy, export trade will expand. Now traders from countries like Hong Kong, and Singapore can do business. It will earn a lot of foreign currency. According to the policy, ‘merchandising, trade’ is defined as ‘procurement of goods and services, from another country and shipment of goods and services from that country directly to buyers in a third country’. Read Bangladesh’s apparel export to cross $100 bn by 2030: experts According to the circular, the EXP form will not be required for export activities under merchandising trade. Similarly, the IMP form applicable to imports will not be required in the case of procurement of goods from different countries. Import expenses can be met with income from foreign sources. At the same time, the possibility of meeting import expenses under buyers' credit received from abroad has been kept in the circular. However, in this case, the bank cannot guarantee payment. The circular directed that there should be a sufficient margin for local expenditure and profit after meeting liabilities from export earnings. Read All export-oriented industries should get equal facilities: Salman F Rahman