Dhaka, Delhi agree to remove trade barriers

Secretariat Correspondent: Bangladesh and India have agreed to remove the existing barriers to expand bilateral trade.

The two countries revealed it today (September 26) in a joint communique after a bilateral meeting between the two sides at the State Guest House Padma.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed led the Bangladesh side while his Indian counterpart Suresh Prabhu the Indian side.

Both the ministers reiterated their commitment to further strengthen the bilateral relations on the basis of friendship, trust and understanding for the mutual benefit of the people of Bangladesh and India.

They said a number of issues related to trade, investment and connectivity such as comprehensive economic partnership agreement, border haats, improvement of infrastructure and operations of land customs stations on the Bangladesh-India border, recognition of test certificates, anti-dumping measures and port restrictions were discussed in the meeting.

Considering the vision of Bangladesh to become a middle income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041, both ministers agreed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) covering goods, services and investment would provide a sound basis for substantial enhancement of trade and commercial partnership.

They directed their officials concerned to undertake a joint study on the prospects of entering into a bilateral CEPA.

Tofail and Prabhu agreed to expedite the constitution of a Bangladesh-India CEO Forum for providing policy level inputs relating to trade and investment issues under different sectors of interest such as jute, textiles, energy, pharmaceuticals and information technology.

The Forum could convene sectoral sub groups to deliberate on specific issues concerning each sector.

The Indian minister invited Bangladesh’s participation in the Partnership Summit, to be organised by India in January 2019, as a partner country. He also offered to organize a joint investment summit in India in October/November 2018, focused on bilateral investments.

Prabhu also invited Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed to participate in the summit, along with a business delegation drawn from identified sectors of interest.

Tofail Ahmed requested the Indian investors to avail the facilities being offered by the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA).

In the context of a number of new initiatives being taken by both India and Bangladesh in various sectors, both ministers agreed to establish a mechanism such as a joint multidisciplinary group for sharing of best practices for mutual benefit.

Tofail requested to address the issue of anti-dumping duty levied on import of jute goods and other products from Bangladesh to India.

Officials concerned of both sides were present.


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 26, 2018/Hasan/AI