Despite several entreaties from Bangladesh, the bilateral trade agreement with India has been shut for three years, and the government officials know no reason why the neighboring country’s authorities are not interested in dialogue in this regard.
A senior official of the Commerce Ministry, on condition of anonymity, said that though there are no tariff barriers on Bangladeshi products, there are non-tariff barriers, including anti-dumping duty, product quality certificates, limited port infrastructures, land and sea port connectivity restrictions, etc.
Previously, several meetings were held to eliminate these obstacles, and among them, the secretary-level meeting is particularly important, the official furthered.
“However, since March 4, 2022, there has been no secretary-level meeting between the two neighboring countries,” he shared the insights. Following the last meeting that was held in New Delhi in 2022, a meeting was scheduled to be held in Dhaka in 2023.
Following tradition, Bangladesh proposed three convenient times between March 15 and April 15, 2023, and has yet to receive Indian responses.
On March 16 this year, Bangladesh held a meeting chaired by the Commerce Secretary where the happenings of the free trade agreement were reviewed.
The meeting decided that a formal proposal would be sent to India for a secretary-level meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Dhaka. At the same time, it was decided to raise strong demands regarding Bangladesh’s commercial routes in the upcoming meeting.
Being asked about the matter, Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman said that they were working on the issue and they will write a letter to the ‘relevant authorities in India’ for a secretary-level meeting.”
“Bangladesh exports much fewer goods to India than India exports to Bangladesh. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the amount of Bangladesh-India bilateral trade was about 14 billion dollars. India’s trade surplus is nine to ten billion dollars every year,” he shared the information.
On April 8 this year, India voided its land port and air transshipment facilities for exporting Bangladeshi products to third countries. In retaliation, Bangladesh banned yarn imports through land ports.
Following the cancellation, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin then said, “India’s cancellation of transshipment will not affect Bangladesh.” Later, addressing an event, he said that the transportation cost of Bangladeshi goods increased by 2,000 crore taka due to the cancellation.
In 2024, Bangladesh imported about 16 billion dollars’ worth of cotton yarn from India. In the same year, Bangladesh exported more than 38 billion dollars’ worth of garment products, of which more than one billion dollars’ worth of goods were exported through Indian land ports.
Experts say that amid the rising tensions, both governments should try to improve bilateral relations, especially in the field of trade.
Translated by AM
