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Bangladesh became the 49th merchandise trader in the world last year, according to the latest ranking of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Four years back in 2019, the country’s position was 53rd among the top 100 merchandise traders n the world.
While China remained the largest merchandise trader in 2022, significant increases in the world rankings were achieved by Guatemala and Costa Rica, which moved up eight places to 76th and 77th place respectively.
“This was mostly due to an increase in Costa Rica’s exports of medical instruments and appliances and in its imports of electrical machinery and equipment,” said the World Trade Statistical Review 2023.
The review report, released by the WTO on Monday last, also added that Guatemala’s rise was prompted by an increase in imports of petroleum products.
“India rose to 7th position in the ranking of services traders in 2022 thanks to a double-digit growth of 32 per cent, boosted by exports of computer services,” it continued.
Bangladesh is also ranked 46th leading importers in world merchandise trade in the last year. United States of America (USA) is on the top of the list followed by China and Germany respectively.
Bangladesh is, however, ranked 29th when intra-EU trade is excluded from the calculation. Intra-EU trade means trade in goods or services (e. g. exports and imports) among the European Union (EU) member states. It is the extra-EU import that is considered here. The extra-EU import refers to imports from all countries outside of the union. China ranked third in the list.
In a similar vein, Bangladesh ranked 40th in the list of top-50 merchandise exporters excluding intra-EU trade.
Again, Bangladesh stood at 39th position among the leading commercial services importers in the last year. The list excluded the intra-EU trade.
The WTO estimate also showed that the country’s overall trade-GDP ratio stood at 12.50 per cent in the last year which was 11.20 per cent in 2021. Both the merchandise and commercial services trade is considered in the overall trade to GDP ratio calculation.