Bangladesh and India have agreed to open border haats and ensure 24 hours operation of Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Benapole-Petrapole soon to facilitate trade between the two neighbouring countries, Indian Commerce Ministry sources said.
The border haats were closed for a long time, and the full-time operation at Benapole- Petrapole ICP was hampered due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The decision for opening the border haats and implementation of 24x7 operation of Benapole-Petrapole ICP was taken at the annual Bangladesh-India commerce secretary-level meeting which concluded Friday.
Bangladesh Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and his Indian counterpart BVR Subrahmanyam led their respective sides at the meeting. Representatives of relevant departments from both countries also joined.
A statement issued by the Indian commerce ministry on Saturday said that both sides have held extensive discussions on a variety of issues of mutual interest. Significant progress was made on multimodal connectivity between Bangladesh and India.
The statement also said that discussion was also held on development of railway infrastructure, port infrastructure, Joint Study on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Regional connectivity through Multi-Modal Transportation, Harmonization of Standards and Mutual Recognition Agreement.
The meeting approved a Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) for developing a container handling facility at Sirajganj Bazar to facilitate bilateral trade and agreed to strengthen regional connectivity through multi-modal transport, the statement said.
The meeting was preceded by the 14th meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade, at the level of joint and additional secretaries of the ministry of commerce of both the countries.
The next meetings of the JWG and Commerce Secretaries will be held in Bangladesh, at mutually convenient dates, the statement said.
However, a source from the Bangladesh side told BSS that Bangladesh has raised some issues at the meeting, which included the lifting of anti-dumping duty on Bangladesh's jute products and removal of trade barriers.
He said Bangladesh is long been demanding the lifting of the anti-dumping duty imposed by India on its jute products from 2017 for five years.
Although the matter was prominently discussed in the last commerce secretary-level meeting held in Dhaka in March last year, no significant headway was made yet to this end, he added.
According to official sources, Bangladesh's export to India has shown a remarkable increase during the past several years. Data show that the total trade volume between India and Bangladesh in the 2020-2021 financial year was about 9.9 billion US Dollars.
Of the total, Bangladesh's export to India was 1.3 billion US Dollars during the period, the highest in history.
