Bangladesh and Bhutan have signed a preferential trade agreement (PTA) on 6 December to ease further trade barriers between the two neighboring countries and facilitate an increase in the volume of bilateral trade. This is the first such agreement Bangladesh has signed with any country since independence in 1971. Under the agreement, some 100 Bangladeshi products will get duty-free access to Bhutan while Bhutan will enjoy duty benefit on its 34 products. Of the 100 Bangladeshi products some are: baby clothes and clothing accessories, men’s trousers and shorts, jackets and blazers, jute and jute goods, leather and leather goods, dry cell battery, fan, watch, potato, condensed milk, cement, toothbrush, plywood, particle board, mineral and carbonated water, green tea, orange juice, pineapple juice, and guava juice. Tipu Munshi, Bangladeshi commerce minister, and Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Bhutanese economic affairs minister, Sunday in Dhaka signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering witnessed the event and joined virtually the signing ceremony from Dhaka and Thimphu respectively. Bangladeshi Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin had earlier said the PTA with Bhutan is part of the several multilateral trade deals that Bangladesh plans to sign in the near future.
