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New rules to combat risky food imports

RefayetUllah Mirdha
The government is set to roll out a three-year import policy for 2012-15, giving priority to health issues and safety, with baby foods in focus.
The current import guide for 2009-12 will come to an end in July.
The commerce ministry has already held a series of meeting with different stakeholders as part of the formulation of the policy.
The ministry yesterday convened a meeting to seek opinions from the stakeholders with Commerce Secretary Ghulam Hussain in the chair, said an official of the ministry who attended the meeting.
In the proposed import policy, procedures for importing basic commodities and daily necessities such as transports, medicines and essentials will be relaxed to safeguard the interest of common people, the official said, asking not to be named.
But, strong control and strict procedures have been proposed for importing such items as baby food, powdered milk and non-branded items as sometimes these products pose health risk. The official said, for importing these food items the importers will have to collect certificates from both the source countries and from the Bangladesh government.
Citing an example, he said, a few years ago there were media reports on import of poor quality and melamine-contaminated milk powder which posed a serious threat to child health.
“In the proposed import policy, we will keep stringent provision for testing the products in all the entry points so that customers are not cheated,” he said.
Setting up machinery in the ports for quarantine testing of imported fruits has also been proposed to avoid the use of life threatening formalin in those imports, he added.
He said imports of some items may face increased fees.
The official said some stakeholders proposed imposing restriction on indiscriminate import of electronic products and non-branded cosmetics, as the locally made products of these categories have good prospects.
Moreover, the non-branded cosmetic items sometimes pose health risk, he added.
Manzur Ahmed, an adviser to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who attended the yesterday's meeting and is involved with formulating the policy, said they are still taking opinions from stakeholders.
“Quality control of the imported goods and health issues are mainly emphasised in the proposed import policy,” Ahmed said.
He said the stakeholders proposed introducing an online system for collecting certificates from the government offices to prevent rent-seeking at different stages.
“We will sit in more meetings with the commerce ministry before finalising the policy to improve it and plug the loopholes. A consultation meeting might be held anytime in July,” he added.