Fresh list readied for duty-free market access to Nepal

Bangladesh will place a fresh list of products seeking duty-free access to Nepal at the bilateral commerce secretary-level meeting to be held in mid-October, officials said.
Kathmandu has so far agreed to offer nominal preferential access to 50 Bangladeshi products against Dhaka's granting of full duty-free access of 108 products to the Himalayan nation, they said.
"We've asked the Bangladesh Tariff Commission to prepare a fresh list of products to place in the next meeting of commerce secretaries seeking duty free access to Nepal," a senior official of the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE.
He said at a meeting of joint-technical committees of the two nations in April, Nepalese officials agreed to grant tariff preference to 50 Bangladeshi products most of which the country hardly imports.
Of the 50 products, Nepal agreed to reduce duty by 3.0 per cent for products having import-duty more than 15 per cent. For products having import duty less than 15 per cent, it agreed to reduce duty by 5.0 per cent.
"They did not grant us duty-free access for any single product until now except granting tariff preference for a few. We will sit with a fresh list of products, which Nepal imports in good volume," the official said.
The two-way trade among Bangladesh and Nepal is still meagre. In fiscal year 2013-14, Bangladesh exported goods worth US$13.68 million to Nepal and imported goods worth US$21.50 million from the Himalayan nation.
Bangladesh mainly exports woven garments, knitwear, agri-products, footwear, raw jute, and jute goods to Nepal.
On the other hand, it imports vegetable products, animal or vegetable fats and oils, products of chemical or allied industries, plastics and rubber articles, textiles and textile articles, natural or cultured pearls, precious stones, imitation jewellery, coin, machinery and mechanical appliances, and electrical equipment, among other products.
Another senior MoC official said the meeting will  opt for finalising the operation modalities of transit-cargo between Bangladesh and Nepal. The last meeting of the joint-technical committee had discussed the issue, but could not finalise it.
Bangladesh and Nepal signed a transit deal in 1976, but it has remained ineffective since then because of the absence of operational modalities.
He said a pending issue--launch of direct bus operating between Dhaka and Kathmandu will be under the connectivity initiative of   BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) and the meeting will avoid this.
The official also said the two sides may sign two memoranda of understanding (MoU) among standards authorities of two countries on SPS and TBT measures. The draft MoUs on SPS and TBT measures are now lying with Nepal for scrutiny.
He said the drafts of two MoUs between the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and Nepal National Trading Ltd and Salt Trading Corporation (STC) of Nepal have been prepared by Dhaka.
 If signed, the deals will facilitate import of essential items under the government to government arrangement. Dhaka is awaiting comments on the MoU from Kathmandu.
The issue will also be discussed in the meeting.
     [email protected]