The three major 

barriers to international trade are natural barriers, such as distance and language;

tariff barriers, or taxes on imported goods; and nontariff barriers. The nontariff barriers to trade include
import quotas, embargoes, buy-national regulations, and exchange controls.

Plastics
The plastic industry in Bangladesh emerged as a promising industrial sector over the last two
decades, and made an important contribution to the economy. There are about 3,000 manufacturing
units in the plastic sector, 98 percent of which belongs to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
According to Bangladesh Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology (BIPET), the sector
provides employment opportunities for more than 1.2 million people either directly or indirectly 11.
Currently, the plastic industry produces 2,500 types of plastic products. Value addition in
manufacturing plastic products is reasonably high ranging from 51 percent to 70 percent (Afrooz,
2016). Plastics also create ways of innovation in other sectors in the economy including packaging,
textile, healthcare, construction, electronics, energy generation, automotive etc.
Plastics have some features which make them accepted globally. Their light weight, attractive color,
ease of processing, non-rusting property, and low cost make them highly demanded worldwide 12. As
a result, the demand for plastic products are increasing day by day both in the domestic and
international markets. Export earnings from plastics come from both direct and deem (RMG
accessories) exports with China, India, Germany, and the US being the major export destinations.
This sector has a huge potential of creating important ways for diversifying the country’s export
basket. The government has also given importance on the plastic sector in its Export Policy Regime
2015-18 and specially encouraged to increase its production and trade through joint initiative of
both public and private sector.

Answer to the question number 2

Inflows of Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Bangladesh declined by 31.79% to $1.15 billion in
the first half of 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the global FDI flows fell 49% to $399 billion during January-June period of 2020,
compared to $777 billion during the same period of 2019, said the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (Unctad) in its report titled Global Investment Trends Monitor released
yesterday.

According to Bangladesh Bank (BB)'s provisional data, during the January-June period of 2020,
net inflow of overseas investment stood at $1.15 billion, down by 31.79%, which was $1.69
billion in the same period last year.