Faruk terms New Delhi visit fruitful, Duty-free access of more Bangladeshi products likely to Indian market

By AKM Moinuddin

Dhaka, Oct 26 (UNB) – Commerce Minister Faruk Khan Tuesday hinted that an official announcement of India granting duty-free access of more Bangladeshi products to Indian market might come shortly, probably during Indian Premier Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka at the beginning of next year.
Terming his recent New Delhi visit fruitful, he said Dhaka got a number of decisions in its favor and expressed high hopes about expeditious implementation of the decisions.
“It’s a fruitful visit in all aspects. Prompt decisions came out through discussions, which will be mutually beneficial for both the countries. I hope its implementation will have the same speed,” he told reporters at a press conference in his ministry this noon.
Although the Commerce Minister considered the entire visit was ‘full of achievements’ he preferred to keep cotton import issue on top of the achievements as the country’s vast textile sector was in trouble due to Indian ban on its export to Bangladesh.
“We’ll get nearly 12.35 lakh bales of cotton this year that will start arriving here from November. The consignments include fresh Indian assurance of exporting some 11 lakh bales of cotton in addition to those already contracted,” Khan said.
Bangladesh usually import 55 lakh bales of cotton from international market every year with major import from Uzbekistan (40 lakh bales), 10 lakh bales from India and 5 lakh bales from other countries, he said.
Faruk said Bangladesh sought to import a quota of 20 lakh bales of cotton from India to get a permanent solution to the problem that appears in the textile sector due to cotton crisis.
“Similarly, we sought quota on food grains export to Bangladesh,” the Minister said adding that India-pledged 3 lakh tones of rice and 2 lakh tones of wheat that will soon arrive in the country.
He said the Indian authority assured him of bringing necessary amendments to the relevant laws to remove non-tariff barriers to importing jute bags from Bangladesh .
“The Indian commerce minister has assured me about the duty-free entry of more Bangladeshi products. Currently 480 items are on India ’s negative list. We demanded to cut 61, mostly textile items (47), from the negative list and we’ll get a positive response very soon,” Khan said.
For the interim period, the Indian government has agreed to allow Bangladesh to duty-free export of 8 million pieces of garment products in 2011 in addition to the pending 1.6 million pieces by December this year.
“The export will be unlimited once our demand for delisting 61 products from India’s negative list is realized,” he explained.
Faruk said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will be visiting Dhaka within next 2-3 months.
He had a 45-minute unscheduled meeting with Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the visit when he has been assured of quick implementation of the joint communique signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to new Delhi in January this year.
On border hat, the Minister said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mode of operation was signed during his visit and hoped that border trading would formally be launched in February next year.
He said 25 traders from each country will be allowed primarily in such hats with unlimited access of buyers. No passport but national identity card will be required there.
Meanwhile, a deal on ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ was also signed to allow trucks from India and Nepal in Bangladesh’s territory (within 200 kilometers) and Bangladesh’s trucks into Indian territory for loading and unloading goods from the warehouses, he said.
Faruk informed that Bangladesh might get BSTI accreditation by December and a team from India would visit Dhaka to inspect BSTI.
On the other hand, Bangladesh business leaders had one-to-one talks with the Indian traders and leaders of leading Indian chambers.
He said four MoUs were signed at that time. India’s SRS Group signed a MoU with Nitol Group to set up a packaging industry in Bangladesh with initial investment of Tk 400 crore.
Meanwhile, a MoU between Uttara Motors and Tata Motors was signed to provide technical training facilities to Bangladeshi people, he said.
END/UNB/