Dhaka, Delhi conducting research to sign trade deal
Dhaka and New Delhi are preparing a good joint study report to sign a in depth economic partnership agreement (CEPA) to improve bilateral trade and investment once Bangladesh becomes a good developing nation.
The federal government has taken the initiative to ink the offer to guard duty privileges in international trade following the country graduates from the grouping of the least-designed country (LDC) in 2024.
Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) and Indian Foreign Trade Institute are preparing the analysis report, said Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin.
Ali Ahmed, ceo of the BFTI, said, "I hope the BFTI will be able to finalise the draft of the CEPA negotiation by another two weeks."
The draft was likely to have been complete a few months ago however the coronavirus pandemic has delayed the preparation, he said.
"The CEPA is an extremely comprehensive subject matter and needs a lot of analysis," he said.
Bangladesh is place to reduce duty preferences found in international trade following the graduation, which prompted Dhaka to begin the procedure to strike free trade agreements (FTAs), preferential trade agreements (PTA), CEPA and other trade plans with trading partners.
Previous month, Bangladesh and Bhutan signed a PTA, the first of all such deal for Bangladesh.
The commerce ministry is attempting to sign FTAs or PTAs with 11 more countries and trade blocs to take pleasure from trade benefit after graduation.
"Both Bangladesh and Nepal will be ready to sign a good PTA," Jafar said.
The federal government plans to sign the CEPA with some selective countries.
The CEPA is a bit different from FTAs since it covers a whole lot of issues such as for example trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights and e-commerce, said Jafar.
"Just signing FTA or PTA with India will not be enough since it is a big market. Besides, India has a big investment in different sectors in Bangladesh. Therefore, Bangladesh needs to sign the CEPA with India," the secretary said.
Bangladesh enjoys duty center in Indian markets under a good South Asian Free Trade Agreement.
Both countries decided to signal the CEPA throughout a secretary-level meeting this past year.
In September 2018, Indian Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and his Bangladeshi counterpart Tofail Ahmed said at a joint press conference that both sides would signal the CEPA.
Mustafizur Rahman, a good distinguished fellow of the Center for Insurance plan Dialogue, said Bangladesh should include some important issues like trade and industry gain access to of goods and solutions found in the CEPA negotiation.
The problems of the investment agreement, expansion of production network, value chain and mutual recognition of standards and recognition should be incorporated in order that even more goods and services could be traded, the trade expert said.
The transport agreement, the guidelines of origin, customs clearance, border crossing and logistics also needs to become prioritised in the negotiation with India, this individual said.
Bangladesh and India can also are the environmental and labour standards found in the CEPA negotiation.
Some outstanding issues just like Indian anti-dumping duty on Bangladeshi jute and jute goods, countervailing duty on garment shipment, different customs rules and lots of non-tariff barriers have already been acting as deterrents to increasing the bilateral trade.
The Indian government has allowed Bangladesh the duty-free access on all products, aside from 25 alcoholic and beverage items in 2011. On the other hand, the export from Bangladesh hasn't increased to an predicted level as a result of non-tariff barriers.
Bangladesh exported goods worth $1.09 billion to India and imported $5.77 billion worth of goods in 2019-20.
The government has initiated a negotiation with the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to sign a regional trade agreement (RTA) so that Bangladesh can grab more market segments in the rising Asian and East Asian marketplaces.
"If we can signal the RTA with the Asean, we won't need to indication any trade cope with the users of the bloc separately," Jafar said.
The government is attempting to enhance the labour standards according to the requirement of europe to wthhold the generalised system of preferences (GSP) in the bloc.
The EU has urged Bangladesh to boost labour standards for the continuation of the GSP. The bloc will analysis the existing GSP in 2023.
Bangladesh's GSP status to the EU can result in 2024. The EU, however, will continue the same GSP up to 2027 under a three-12 months grace period.
The commerce, foreign and labour secretaries will work together to boost labour standards, Jafar said.
Last week, the bureaucrat held a gathering with the officials of the UN Committee for Development Policy and demanded two even more years as the transition period.
"We've demanded a transition period for up to 2026 as our economy has been severely influenced by the fallouts of the Covid-19," he said.
