Dhaka, Jan. 26 -- The prolonged tariff preferences have hardly helped Bangladesh boost exports to the Chinese market due to narrow product basket, stringent value addition requirement and the lack of competitiveness, stakeholders and experts say.

Bangladesh has enjoyed tariff benefits in the Chinese market under zero-duty scheme of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the least developed countries (LDCs) and the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) simultaneously for years, but till now the export figure could not cross the billion-dollar mark.

China offered duty free facility on its 61 per cent tariff lines to Bangladesh and other least developed countries (LDCs) in 2010. Most recently, the duty-free coverage has been raised to 97 per...