Bangladesh-Nepal commerce secy-level meet postponed

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FE Report
The two-day meeting between commerce secretaries of Bangladesh and Nepal, scheduled to start Friday last in Dhaka, was postponed at the last moment as the Himalayan country expressed its unwillingness at the to attend the meeting, sources said.
"The Nepalese Ministry of Commerce has requested us Thursday noon to postpone the meeting," a trade official told the FE on Thursday.
"The political unrest in Katmandu might be a reason for that country's sudden decision not to attend the trade talks."
A new schedule for the talks is likely to be set soon, he added.
Officials in the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said the commerce secretaries of the two countries were due to devise strategy for the implementation of the relevant clauses of joint communiqué, signed between premiers of India and Bangladesh in New Delhi, January this year.
A joint communiqué, signed by Monmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina, expressed the intention to give Nepal and Bhutan access to Mongla and Chittagong ports.
The prime ministers, in the joint communiqué, also agreed that Rohanpur-Singabad broad gauge railway link would be available for transit to Nepal.
Earlier, the MoC decided that the Commerce Secretary level meeting would also focus on problems relating to loading and unloading of goods at the zero point of the boarder, sources said.
Presently, Nepalese truck cannot enter Bangladesh and they need to make loading/unloading at the zero point of the boarder. Most of the traded goods of Nepal are carried via Banglabandha land port.
However, due to absence of such agreement, Nepalese trucks cannot reach the warehouses of the land port and they need to wait at the no man's land for Bangladeshi trucks to come for re-loading, which increases the cost of business.
"All pending and critical bilateral issues would be discussed whenever the meeting takes place later," a high official in the MoC said.