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Dhaka, Delhi to talk trade again in June

SHAHRIAR KARIM
Bangladesh and India will sit for another round of trade talks in New Delhi in June.
Dhaka has agreed to Delhi's proposal to hold fresh trade talks and proposed June 25-27 as the tentative date, according to highly placed commerce ministry sources.
"We received the proposal for talks, though an informal one, from the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka. The date is yet to be fixed. Hopefully, we will sit sometime in
June," a high official of the commerce ministry told The Daily Star.
New Delhi's proposal for fresh talks came just a month after the secretary-level meet in Dhaka held from April 8-10.
This time India proposed to meet in a small forum and discuss the revision of the bilateral trade agreement, which will expire in June.
However, Dhaka said with a yawning US$ 1.1 billion trade deficit with Delhi any trade talks should focus on bridging the gap.
"The date will be fixed once both
sides finalise the agenda," another official of the commerce ministry said.
Delhi's proposal to sit for another round of talks in such a short span of time came as, many believe, the Indians are keen to pursue Bangladesh into lifting its ban on yarn and sugar imports through land ports. According to sources, Bangladesh imports yarn worth Tk 2000 crore from India annually through land ports.
During the April talks, India
agreed to allow duty-free access to Bangladesh's 40 products under 16 categories. However, Delhi is yet to take necessary actions to make the offer effective.
This time Dhaka will focus on India's duty-free access to at least 121 high-potential and potential items under 25-category, a demand that it has been pursuing for the last four years.
Meantime, Dhaka has finalised a draft of the agenda of the talks.
Dhaka's agenda include zerotariff access of its products to the Indian market, removal of paratariff and non-tariff barriers, opening of trade missions in northeastern Indian states and also facilitation of banking facilities for Bangladeshi exporters to those states.
The revision of the bilateral trade agreement will also come up for discussion in the talks, the sources said. The agreement was signed in 1980 for three years and was later renewed in October 2000 for six months.
Earlier, Bangladesh proposed to have a new bilateral trade agreement with a wider scope as the existing one did not serve the interest of the country.
H oweve r, the tra n-sit/transshipment and border trade issues will not come up for discussion this time as it was agreed during the April talks that these would be discussed at the joint economic commission meeting.