Bangladesh has now again moved to sign a bilateral transit deal with land-locked Bhutan aiming at smooth transportation of goods to and from there, official sources said.
The fresh move, taken again after one-year pause, was made last week when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the officials of the ministry of commerce (MoC) to expedite the process of signing the transit deal. A cabinet meeting gave go-ahead to renewal of trade deal with Bhutan.
 "Yes, she asked us to further negotiate with Bhutan to sign the deal as early as possible for smooth connectivity," a senior MoC official told the FE.
He said the MoC will soon arrange a meeting to take preparation for starting negotiation with Bhutan again.
Bangladesh and Bhutan had signed a bilateral transit deal in 1980 which expired in 2000. The deal could not be made effective as Bangladesh had no similar transit accord with India for movement of goods across the Indian territory to the Himalayan kingdom.
Since then, no fresh transit agreement was signed and the previous one could not be renewed due to absence of protocol or modalities of the pact.
At the commerce secretary level meeting in Thimpu in 2008, Bhutan raised the issue of preparing modalities for transit and trade and requested Bangladesh to sign a fresh transit deal.
After that in August 2012, the MoC formed a committee on transit and transhipment, headed by the then Bangladesh Tariff Commission chairman Mujibur Rahman which submitted its report in February.
The report suggested keeping both the options -- transit and transhipment -- open for neighbouring countries including India, Bhutan and Nepal.
Following the report, a draft of proposed bilateral transit deal was sent to Bhutan in late February 2013 for its approval.
However, at one stage, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in late 2013 informed the MoC that no bilateral transit deal would be signed. Rather a trilateral deal by including India can be signed to make the pact effective since Bangladeshi goods will have to pass through the Indian territory to reach Bhutan.
A senior MoC official said after the directive from the PMO for signing trilateral transit deal, a joint working committee with assent from India was formed, which was coordinated by the ministry of foreign affairs. The committee had the maiden meeting in Dhaka in late 2013 and the second meeting was scheduled to be held in New Delhi, which later could not be held because of the Indian election.
In the meantime, Bhutan returned the draft of the proposed bilateral transit deal in June 2014 with some observations.
In the draft, Bhutan proposed that some issues including fees and charges, customs duties and procedures, and some others should not be included.
 "We had incorporated the issues as we wanted it to be a framework deal, but Bhutan proposed that those should be omitted," said another senior official.
Officials said trade between the two countries is still very nominal which is highly tilted towards Bhutan. In fiscal year 2013-14, Bangladesh exported goods worth US$1.91 million to Bhutan while its import from the country was worth $22.50 million.
He said connectivity by road between Bangladesh and Bhutan can help raise trade among the two countries.
He also said after signing the transit deal with Bhutan, Bangladesh will request India to sign a similar bilateral deal for smooth connectivity and augmenting trade.
Bangladesh mainly exports fruit juice, garment, melamine products, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics to Bhutan while it imports fruits, construction materials, raw materials of cement, and spices.
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