Govt directs commercial counsellors in missions to remove barriers

The government has directed the commercial counsellors in different foreign missions to identify and sort out non-tariff barriers facing export to their assigned countries under a move to boost the external trade, officials said.
In a simultaneous move, the government has decided to open a good number of commercial wings in some important countries for enhancing export earnings and further strengthening bilateral ties.
The countries are Sweden, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore and China (Kunming).
"The move is now underway," a high official of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said about the diplomatic endeavour towards augmenting trade.
From now on, the commercial counsellors of the respective countries will identify the trade barriers firstly.
Next, they will discuss with the government authorities, export-import associations and customs of the countries for removing the existing roadblocks to export.
Then, finally, the commercial diplomats will inform the MoC about what initiatives have been taken and next course of action in this connection.      
Besides, the counsellors will also have to identify the items which have immense prospect of export to the respective countries, the sources said.    
The decision came at the monthly evaluation meeting of the commercial wings under the MoC held at the ministry last month. Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary of the ministry, presided.
A large number of commercial wings failed to achieve monthly export targets for lack of proper initiative of the wings concerned, and this setback prompted the vigorous drive.
The government wants to boost the country's export sector. So, the MoC has taken the initiative to identify the non-tariff barriers in the field of export, an official concerned of the ministry said.
"We are now monitoring the activities of the existing commercial wings and asking the officials of the wings to promote export," one of the sources said.
The authorities are pinning high hopes on the new commercial wings planned for export expansion.       
"If the move sees success, Bangladesh's export earnings from all those seven countries will increase and it will help reduce the huge trade imbalances," a commerce ministry source said.
However, 18 of 53 Bangladesh missions abroad achieved their export targets and 35 couldn't get to the goals set for them for the July-August period of the current 2014-2015 fiscal.
The export earning in July-August was US$ 5142.24 million, which is 2.07 per cent higher than that of the corresponding period of the previous year and 9.16 per cent lower than the strategic target.
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