The government has taken a set of initiatives to turn the trade gap between Bangladesh and Nepal in favour of the country from the prevailing negative territory, officials said.
The initiatives include persuading the government of Nepal to exclude Bangladeshi products from SAFTA sensitive list, simplify transport and immigration facilities, establish hassle-free customs formalities and run direct bus service between the two countries.
Frequent exchanges of trade delegation, arrangement of single-country fair on a regular basis and the formation of a working group to finalise the list of items for duty concession on a mutual basis are also among the initiatives.
As part of the initiatives, the government of Bangladesh has requested the Indian government to remove various barriers that stand in the way of export of goods to Nepal.
"There is a huge market of Bangladeshi goods in Nepal, but due to some impediments, our exporters could not do well. Now we are trying to overcome all the odds through discussion," Shubhashish Bose, vice-chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), told the FE.
Local exporters hailed the government's initiatives, saying that if the government can remove the trade barriers, exports to the Himalayan country will get a boost.
"There is a huge demand for Bangladeshi garment items in Nepal, but due to communication problems raised by the Indian government and higher duty structure, our exporters cannot do well," Md. Atiqul Islam, president of BGMEA, told the FE.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, marketing director of Pran RFL Group, said, "There is huge demand for our food items and other plastic products in Nepal, but higher duty and some other obstacles are dampening our prospects."
"The Indian authority does not allow the Nepalese importers to use their corridors for transport of goods unless 20 trucks laden with goods reach bordering area at a time. It is not possible to communicate with all the exporters to send their consignments at a time, which causes concern among them," he added. Â
However, Bangladesh gets tariff concession on 89 items and duty waiver on some items from Nepal under ASPTA and SAFTA respectively.
Meanwhile, the trade balance is still in favour of Nepal. According to high officials of the commerce ministry, the gap is gradually shrinking.
The trade balance in favour of Nepal was US$ 38.16 million in the financial year 2010-11 which came down to $ 7.82 million in the last fiscal year. Besides, during the July-January period of the current financial year, Bangladesh exported goods worth $ 15.49 million to Nepal against zero import.
Major exports from Bangladesh to Nepal include pharmaceuticals, woven garments, plastic hangers, printed materials, knitwear, footwear (leather), other primary commodities, iron chain, paper and furnace oil.
Major imports from Nepal to Bangladesh are vegetables, prepared foodstuffs, mineral products, chemical or allied industrial products, lentil etc.
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