Tag Archives: Bangladesh

South Asian Nations Sign Free Trade Pact

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In January, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka signed a free trade zone agreement that will start to bring trade barriers between those countries down beginning in 2006.

The agreement calls on the most developed of these countries — Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka — to virtually eliminate tariffs with the other countries by 2013, but gives the other countries until 2016 to lower their tariffs. There is, however, a provision that allows countries to maintain a list of “sensitive” products on which tariffs can be maintained.

Beyond advancing the cause of free trade, the real importance of this pat is the shot in the arm it could give to trade between Pakistan and India. Currently, trade between the two rivals is estimated at about $1.5 billion. That could double under the free trade regimen. And, of course, the more the two countries become economically intertwined, the higher the cost (and hence, the lower the risk) of war between them.

According to the BBC, there are now more than 200 regional free trade agreements.

Sources:

South Asia ‘agrees to free trade’. The BBC, January 2, 2004.

South Asia signs free trade pact. Reuters, January 6, 2004.

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Sari Cloth Can Filter Cholera

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In a test conducted by the US National Science Foundation, folded up sari cloth was found to be just as effective as more expensive materials in filtering out cholera from water in Bangladesh.

According to the BBC, the cholera bacteria lives in a symbiotic relationship with plankton. The theory was that by filtering the plankton out of the water, the amount of cholera bacteria would be decreased as well.

This was put to the test in a Bangladesh village where a filter made of simply taking sari cloth and folding it four times was compared with more expensive nylon filters. The result — in villages where training in using the sari cloth was given, incidence of cholera was cut in half. The nylon filters had slightly poorer results.

The main advantage of the sari cloth is that it is cheap and widely available. Dr. Rita Colwell, who headed up the research, told the BBC that, “The method can save thousands of lives during massive [cholera] epidemics, particularly those of children under the age of five.”

Source:

Cloth filter could cut cholera deaths. The BBC, January 14, 2003.

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Low Cost Water Filter Could Save Millions of Lives

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A Bangladeshi professor has developed a cheap water filter that could save the lives of millions of people in the developing world who currently drink water filled with dangerously high levels of arsenic.

Arsenic occurs naturally in groundwater in many parts of the world, with the World Health Organization estimating that as many as 80 million people could be affected by arsenic poisoning. But water filtering systems used in the developed world are often out of reach of developing country’s budgets and expertise.

Enter Prof. Fakhrul Islam who invented a water filter that costs only $3 and can effectively filter arsenic out of water. The filter is a mixture of crushed bricks and ferrous sulphate that are heated. In tests by the United Nations, the filter led to a 20-fold decrease in the amount of arsenic in water.

The United Nations plans to give away the filter in villages across Bangladesh, and it could find applications in other countries with groundwater arsenic problems.

Sources:

Water filter set to save lives. Alistair Lawson, The BBC, July 14, 2002.

New water filter to combat arsenic and lead poisoning. Navakal.Com, July 14, 2002.

Life saving water filter good news for millions of Bangladeshi. Scientic News, August 2002.

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Lift U.S. Quotas on Bangladesh Textiles

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Bangladesh Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chodhury visited the United States in mid-November to ask the U.S. to life its quotas on textile products from that Asian country. The United States should do the right thing and oblige them.

Developed countries such as the United States complain incessantly about the lack of free markets within the developing world, but at the same time maintain backward trade regimes that prevent poor countries from developing export industries of their own (which also raise the cost of living for residents in developed countries).

If the United States really wants to do something about poverty in the Third World, it should immediately lift all trade restrictions with developing nations as soon as possible.

Source:

Bangladesh wants textiles curbs lifted. BBC, November 12, 2001.

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