Dhaka to assess chances of trade with India in rupee

Bangladesh will look into the possibilities of conducting bilateral trade with India using rupee instead of the US dollar, said Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi. 

Speaking at a press conference at the conference room of the commerce ministry on Tuesday, the minister said India proposed using the rupee to settle bilateral trade during his recent visit to the neighbouring country.

During his visit to India on December 22-23, Tipu Munshi and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal discussed issues to boost trade and cooperation between the nations. 

Terming the Indian proposal to use rupee in trade settlement as primary, the commerce minister said, “We will have to discuss the matter with all parties concerned the Bangladesh Bank and the National Bureau of Revenue. If the discussion shows it will be good for us, then we will take the next steps.”

Tipu Munshi said, “India has begun using their local currency with Iran and Russia. Whether we will be able to do the same needs to be considered.”

The minister said the meeting with the Indian delegation also discussed border markets, long-term visas for businessmen, etc.

He said, “India said they do not have any objection against issuing long-term visas for businessmen. But it will have to wait for a month or one and a half months.

“India is under huge pressure in issuing medical visas due to the Covid-19. They said the pressure will dwindle down at the end of January. Then they will be able to issue regular, tourist, multiple and business visas.”

Minister Tipu said he also discussed importing high yielding rubber clones from India following the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Besides, he requested Indian officials to provide quota facilities to Bangladesh for the import of essential food items, including rice, wheat, sugar, onion, garlic, ginger and pulses.

The request has been made to ensure that the imports of these essential items will not face any troubles in future as there is a fear of a possible food crisis due to the impacts of the Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Tipu said, “We faced problems when they stopped exporting onions and wheats. They said that they will be able to heed our requests. But further discussions are necessary to determine the amounts of the commodities.

“We had asked for large quantities.”

According to Tipu, India wants to discuss the matter further as past records indicate Bangladesh do not need the asked amount of goods and there is a fear of the products getting wasted if Bangladesh do not import the goods.

The commerce minister also requested India not to suddenly stop exporting goods to us as previously Bangladesh faced a crisis after the neighbouring country stopped sending onions.

“We asked to be informed at least a month prior to any such bans,” he said.

Moreover, Tipu Munshi asked India not to maintain the anti-dumping duty on Bangladeshi jute.