One of the important by-products of the trade in the animals was the availability of hides. Calculating that about 18 square feet of hide could be extracted from an average head of cattle, Bakht estimated an annual availability of over 30 million square feet of hide through illegal imports of cows, another 0.5 million or so square feet of hides and skin that were directly smuggled into Bangladesh. He also spoke of the impetus it gave to the availability of dairy products and meat in the face of rising demands. The supply of draft power to agriculture also improved as a result.

The list of illegal imports is imposing: there are not less than fourteen items in Bakht’s list. Livestock, fish, poultry and related products are nearly 40 per cent of the total value of all such imports. Next come agricultural products, processed foods and tobacco and then textiles and electrical goods. Liquor and the cough syrup Phensidyl, which many Bangladesh take as a liquor or drug, comprise 2.44 per cent of the total value.

Bangladesh’s total legal exports to India were a measly 21 million US dollars in 1993-94. Illegal exports to India constituted the sum total of the country’s legal trade many times over: 126 million dollars worth of goods or six times the amount earned by licensed exporters and traders.

This means that Bangladesh’s official trade deficit with India, at that time, was not less than 392 million dollars (413 million dollars for imports minus 21 million dollars of exports). With the addition of the illegal trade, this deficit rises to nearly 900 million dollars. There are other economists who say that the actual figure is over a billion dollars, because the under-invoicing of goods going legally out of Bangladesh is not often estimated.

To translate this deficit into a surplus, or at least bring it toward some parity with India, the following steps are a must. Smuggling cannot be stopped any more than illegal migration. But we must make a beginning that has the promise of improving conditions for a larger group of people on either side of the border.

One, the legalization of trade in specific items which are currently major income generators for both sides—cattle and fish, medicines and electrical goods as well as textiles. Some of these items are covered under SAFTA, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement, which has barely inched forward in these past years. Therefore, if India and Bangladesh can conclude bilateral agreements on these items, it will benefit a good number of people dependent on trade and also bring in official revenue for both sides.