Modi's visit: Dhaka-Delhi set to renew trade pact

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Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Dhaka and New Delhi will renew the bilateral trade agreement during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh, officials said on Monday.
They said, a deal in this regard will be signed by the concerned ministries of both the countries in presence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Premier Narendra Modi.
The decades old trade pact expired on May 31 this year.
“The revised pact will provide facility to carry goods from Bangladesh to Nepal and Bhutan through Indian waterways, railways and roads,” a senior commerce ministry official told The New Nation on Monday.
The Article 8 of the India-Bangladesh trade agreement said, “The two governments would make mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways, railways and roads for trade and commerce between the two countries and for passage of goods between two places of one country through the territory of the other”.
According to the commerce ministry official, currently trucks, railway wagons and water vessels from Bangladesh cannot use Indian territories for exporting goods to land-locked Nepal and Bhutan.
Earlier, the cabinets of both the countries approved a new trade pact bringing reform in article 8.
The new pact’s tenure has been fixed for five years from the existing three years, with keeping the provision of auto renewal mechanism.
“Both the countries will also open a ‘border haat’ at Koshba in Brahmanbaria district during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Bangladesh.
The border haat will be inaugurated by the two premiers through video conference,” said the commerce ministry official.
When asked, he said, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister will raise the issue of the
existing para-tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. She will also refer to the exporting local goods to the Indian market during her talks with Modi.
She may also seek Modi’s cooperation in accepting BSTI’s certification of Bangladeshi goods by the Indian Customs Authority.
India’s National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has accepted the testing certificates of Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) of 25 local products.
But the Indian Customs Authority reportedly does not accept those.
“The issue of trade deficit could also be discussed during the official talks between the two leaders,” he added.
He further said that these issues would be included in the joint communiqué.  
According to an official figure, Bangladesh’s trade gap with India in the first nine months of the current financial year continued to hover at $4.06 billion despite a slight increase in exports to the neighbouring country.
The trade gap was still high as different non-tariff barriers continued to limit Bangladesh’s exports to the neighbouring country, according to the exporters.
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