Indo-Bangla officials sit today to help remove trade barriers

The commerce secretaries of Bangladesh and India will sit in Dhaka today to discuss how to increase bilateral trade by removing trade barriers.

They will discuss various issues such as tariff and non-tariff barriers, anti-dumping duty on exports of Bangladesh's jute goods to India, and the feasibility of signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two nations, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said in a statement.

Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin and his Indian counterpart Anup Wadhawan will lead their respective sides at the meeting, to be held at the InterContinental Dhaka.

The last commerce secretary level meeting took place on January 15-16, 2020.

At today's meeting, the progress in implementing the decisions made during the last meeting will also be discussed. Besides, both sides will talk about how to expand a number of border haats and improve port infrastructure.

While briefing the media at his office yesterday, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi expressed his hope that some trade disputes could be resolved through the discussion as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to come to Bangladesh this month to attend the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence.