Joint trade body meet on BD-Thai FTA in August

Bangladesh and Thailand look to hold negotiation talks on the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) soon to finalise details of the agreement.

To facilitate the talks, a Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting between the two countries is expected to be held in Dhaka next month.

The issue of signing the FTA will figure high on the agenda of the meeting scheduled for August 28-30, according to sources.

Besides, bilateral issues will be brought up in the upcoming formal sitting.

Dhaka and Bangkok have already signed a Letter of Intent (LoI), aiming to commence negotiation talks this year, said a senior official of the commerce ministry.

This negotiation is part of various measures the commerce ministry has taken to increase the country's export earnings. It has taken initiatives to sign trade agreements, including FTAs/PTAs, with a number of countries, he mentioned.

Currently, Bangladesh's products have duty-free market access to 38 countries. Of these countries, about 27 member-states of the European Union (EU) are giving duty-free market facilities to Bangladeshi products. Besides, Japan, Chile, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India and China are providing such facilities.

Many developed countries would not provide duty-free facility to Bangladesh after its graduation from LDC in 2026.

So, the ministry has been taking steps to put in place adequate measures for expanding the volume of exports after graduation, said another high official, who is dealing with the issue.

The government formed a high-profile committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to guard against any possible external shock to the export earnings after graduation.