Nepal has agreed to grant preferential tariff facility to 50 Bangladeshi products against Dhaka's duty-free offer to 108 products of the Himalayan nation, sources said.
The consensus was reached at a meeting of the technical committees on the Ministries of Commerce (MoCs) of Bangladesh and Nepal in Kathmandu last week, they added.
An eight-member Bangladesh delegation, led by MoC additional secretary Monoj Kumar Roy, attended the meeting.
A senior MoC official told the FE that at a bilateral meeting in February 2013 Bangladesh had demanded duty-free facility of 153 products to Nepalese market.
However, in the last week's meeting, Nepal agreed to grant preferential tariff facility to 50 products instead of duty-free access sought by Bangladesh. On the other hand, Bangladesh agreed to grant duty-free access to 108 Nepalese goods as offered earlier.
"Now we will seek the cabinet's approval before formally granting Nepal the duty-free access of 108 products," the official added.
The meeting has finalised draft of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for import of goods on government-to-government (G-to-G) basis as well as discussed about sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) and visa issuance. Sources said the two sides also discussed operational modalities of cargo transit, but agreed that further discussion is needed for its finalisation.
At the bilateral meeting the Nepalese side alleged that its nationals are denied on-arrival visa at land-ports. The Bangladesh side demanded long-duration visa for its businessmen.
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Nepal to grant preferential tariff facility for 50 goods
Syful Islam | Published: April 28, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: April 27, 2015 23:49:11
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