It Is quite assuring to know that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee favours withdrawal of tariff and non-tariff barriers on goods imported from Bangladesh. The issue deserved to be treated much earlier in the light of the widening trade gap between India and Bangladesh. So far Bangladesh has unsuccessfully pleaded for wide access of its goods into India. Now that the minister holding the portfolio of foreign affairs has come out in support of Bangladesh's • cause, we hope things will start moving at a faster pace towards materialisation of the sm^ll neighbour's demand.

Dhaka's expectations have been quite modest. It is not asking for any undue favour. Indian goods find their access into Bangladesh market at a tariff rate between 25 and 30 per cent, whereas commodities from Bangladesh face the International tariff rate of more than 60 per cent for access into the Indian market. This is no way of reducing the trade gap heavily tilted towards the big neighbour. Import from India has gone up by leaps and bounds, while our export to that country has gone up only fractionally.

A look at the increasing trade gap from Tk 71.43 crore in 1984-85 to Tk 1.567.97 crore in 1993-94, should convince one that urgent action is required to be taken in the area. We surely can do better than exporting goods valued at Tk 85.50 crore as we had done in 1993-94. The fact is that we have for such a long time allowed the gap to yawn through lack of a reciprocal approach from the other side. This can easily be remedied if there is enough will behind it

India is a large market and there are commodities here, which, with a little bit of salesmanship. on top of the tariff waiver, can do the trick for us. Then India could set up Joint venture projects in Bangladesh with buy-back arrangements. Let's concentrate on goods which have instant advantage in the Indian market and then go on to do some marketing research to find out fresh potential for some new exports. Things should move on the Indian side so that we get the access for our goods to India. In the meantime we can set the targets and proceed to reduce the trade gap accordingly.