It is easier for Bangladesh to export goods than import due to regulatory redundancies and weak trade facilities at the country’s ports, according to Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman and chief executive officer of Pran-RFL Group.
He made this comment after participants at a seminar on “Issues of Cross Border Trade: Importance of Risk Management System in Supply Chain of Agro Products” pointed out the delay in release of imported goods from the ports owing to collection of samples and testing of each consignment by the regulatory agencies.
The event was jointly organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Project (BTF) funded by the US Department of Agriculture, at the event at the FBCCI headquarters in Motijheel, Dhaka yesterday.
Chowdhury also urged the government to align domestic food safety requirements with those of global authorities in order to speed up exports from the sector.
“We can easily export to the US, UK and other countries if we have approval from their food safety authorities,” he said.
“But locking up factories and arresting their owners for violating regulations is not a solution because if we want to take the country forward, we have to work in structured manner,” Chowdhury added.
At the event, businesses also urged for the inclusion of a cross-border trade risk management system in import procedures to reduce the time and cost of trade.
Cross-border trade risk management is a globally accepted and practiced tool that creates a balance between facilitation and control in the clearance process.
They also urged for a major reform in import policies and demanded lifting the inspection requirement for all imported agricultural and food products.
Mohammad Abu Yusuf, additional secretary of the finance ministry, and AAM Amimul Ehsan Khan, senior technical advisor of the BTF project, jointly presented a keynote paper.
They pointed out some examples of international best practices related to the inspection of imported goods. For example, the EU has reduced its inspection requirement for highly refined animal products to 1 percent and poultry meat to 15 percent while maintaining 100 percent for live animals .
They also mentioned that trade is expanding but human resources are not increasing in same way in terms of capacity and trade.
“There has been a revolution in agriculture in the past year. The government is working to reduce issues related with cross-border trade. We will soon discuss with the government to facilitate intra-trade”, said FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam.
Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque highlighted the country’s self-sufficiency in food grains as well as the government’s efforts to modernise and commercialise the agriculture sector.
He announced plans to allocate space near the capital for testing agricultural products, aiming to streamline the clearance process and minimise time and cost for traders.
Among others, Michael J Parr, project director of the BTF, Md Hafizur Rahman, member of the Bangladesh Competition Commission, and Farid Uddin, former member of the National Board of Revenue, also spoke.
