The Hindu : Dhaka terms for talks with India on FTA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

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International - India & World

Dhaka terms for talks with India on FTA

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA July 23. The Bangladesh Commerce Minister, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, has said that India would need to fulfil four prerequisites, including the according of special and preferential treatment to Bangladeshi goods, to obtain positive results in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations scheduled to begin in mid-October. This is the first official Bangladesh reaction after the July 15-16 Foreign Minister-level India-Bangladesh Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting here agreed to initiate FTA talks in mid-October.

Briefing members of the Overseas Correspondents Association of Bangladesh on Tuesday, the Minister said Bangladesh wanted some "early harvests" by way of resolving trade disputes with India before talks on free trade.

Consideration of the comparative development stages of the two countries, resolving the problem of tariff, non-tariff and para-tariff barriers under one package and ensuring an equitable share of trade by reducing the huge trade gap of $ 1 billion are the other prerequisites. "If these bases are not accepted, what are we going to negotiate? This has to be a starting point of the negotiations. Otherwise, the negotiations will not be useful," Mr. Chowdhury said.

The Minister, who was not present at the JEC meeting, said he would like to see India allow duty-free market access to 118 Bangladeshi items as well as remove existing non-tariff restrictions that virtually blocked exports of goods such as cement, CI sheets and lead-acid batteries to Indiat. "We have to have the right condition to go on FTA... We would like to have these things resolved before the FTA negotiation. If not, we'll have to wait and see," he said.

As an example of what he called "early harvests", the Minister said Bangladesh would like to see India allow the entry of some 100,000 tonnes of cement from Bangladesh. "No measures have so far been taken from their part to reduce the trade gap," he told the journalists referring to the repeated roadblocks to Bangladesh's exports to India's northeast.

Bus service from Aug. 9?

Meanwhile, the much-awaited Dhaka-Agartala bus service proposal is yet to get the Cabinet's approval, although August 9 has been fixed as the date for the start. A summary of the proposal, prepared by the Commerce Ministry, came up at the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, but the Cabinet asked for a distinct summary to be prepared by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

An official delegation from Tripura, which arrived here on Tuesday, finalised details of the service and fixed the return journey fare at $12.

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