Watch import dumping

There are many examples, but a few would suffice. Electrical goods are mostly old models. 'New' refrigerators in the Dhaka stadium are as old as 1999 modelsit took me half an hour to squeeze out the information. The huge bulky telephone sets are not new models. No manufacturer's literature (leaflet/catalogue) are available even at the big showrooms owned by famous local groups of companies; and the sales staff are not technically oriented to provide the tech specs of each and every item (can't remember all the data depending on human memory).

Purchase of capital goods is a slow process. Consumer goods sell fast and at quicker intervals. The sellers (shops) are looking for the new rich buyers. Another problem is the absence of authorized service centres, with trained staff. The names of the authorized agents or importers are not publicised.

It is a grey market, and the government is rather indifferent to the negative implications faced by buyers and consumers (what is CAB doing?). The imported milk powder (surplus stocks in the developed countries) should not be date-expired. The soyabean oil is also surplus abroad. And these are dumped into the third world with preconditions for further aid (the pressure is indirect). We are exporting spectacle frames, but the shops stock mostly foreign brands. Are all the labels genuine? "Made in Bangladesh" ready-made clothes are hardly sold in the posh dept stores, while we are clothing the EU and the USA!

Smash the grey market, if not the black market.