To give a boost to regional trade, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Chamber of Commerce on Monday urged south Asian countries to remove all kinds of non-tariff barriers.
“When all the eight SAARC countries have taken initiative to minimise tariff barriers to strengthen regional trade cooperation, the non-tariff barriers have come on the way to develop better trades among the SAARC countries and I would request all the countries to remove all kinds of non-tariff barriers,” president of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Anisul Huq told reporters here.
The chamber has taken an initiative to increase the number of SAARC stickers from 100 per month to 500 per month for businessmen in each country for providing visa exemption facilities to them, he said.
Praising Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mr. Huq said that her recent visit to Delhi has solved many trade-related problems between the two neighbouring countries.
“Bangladesh would earn at least USD 1.2 billion by providing transport logistics to India for using Chittagong and Mongla port,” he said.
Mr. Huq, who is also the president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce, said India being the largest trading partner of Bangladesh was exporting items worth USD 358.08 billion while it’s import from the country was just USD 31.30 billion leading to a huge trade imbalance.
