Bangladesh yesterday demanded duty-free access of 56 items to Nepal to boost bilateral trade, at the third commerce-secretary level meeting that began in Dhaka yesterday.Bangladesh has sought the benefit for the products that have export potential, said Monoj Kumar Roy, additional secretary to the commerce ministry, who was also a member of the Bangladesh delegation at the meeting.The products include fish, potato chips, wafers, construction materials, refrigerators, lead acid battery, garments, plastic goods, cement, tobacco, tomato sauce and biscuits.Roy, speaking to The Daily Star after the meeting at the secretariat in Dhaka, also said Nepal demanded duty-free import of machine-processed writing papers, but Bangladesh agreed to export handmade papers to Nepal.On the other hand, Bangladesh offered duty-free benefits to 108 products of Nepal, Roy said.The commerce ministry of Bangladesh has been preparing the modalities on how to allow the duty-benefit to Nepal and on how many products, said Roy.Nepal’s demands were placed at the second commerce-secretary level meeting in Nepal in 2012, he added.“However, nothing has been finalised yet as the discussions are ongoing,” he said.On the implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement that was signed among four nations — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) — in June last year, Roy said three countries, except Bhutan, have approved the deal for seamless movement of passengers and vehicles among the four nations.We hope Bhutan will ratify the BBIN deal soon and everybody is expecting the practical implementation of the deal by December,” Roy said.In a major push towards sub-regional cooperation, four South Asian countries signed the deal last year, which would allow the movement of vehicles through their borders just like in the 27 European Union countries.“We are also expecting a higher volume of trade among the four nations due to better connectivity among the four nations,” said Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed after the meeting.Ahmed is scheduled to brief journalists on the outcomes of the discussion at the end of the meeting today between the commerce secretaries of the two countries.The delegations also discussed the modalities of transit cargo transportation between Bangladesh and Nepal and a full-fledged launch of the Kakarbhita-Panirtanki-Fulbari commercial routes.The other important issues are about setting up a railway communication, sanitary and phyto-sanitary, identification of trade barriers and further simplifying the visa system.The issues also include participation in trade fairs in each country, improving the tourism sector, investing in hydroelectricity by Nepal, easing the registration process of pharmaceutical products and signing a memorandum of understanding between Trading Corporation of Bangladesh and Public Trading Corporation of Nepal.Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary to the commerce ministry, and Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya, the Nepalese commerce secretary, represented their respective side.
