Dhaka and Moscow could not form a Joint Trade Commission (JTC), although nearly two and a half years have elapsed since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Russia in January 2013, officials said.
During the visit, the two countries agreed to set up the body intended to facilitate bilateral trade. Since then, Russia has given reminders several times, but the issue remained pending with the ministry of foreign affairs, they said.
Earlier of the month, Moscow imposed a temporary ban on potato imports from Bangladesh, citing the presence of harmful bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum in some Bangladeshi consignments.
Trade officials said if there were a platform, the two nations would have had scope for discussing the matter and finding out an amicable solution to trade-related disputes.
"The issue of formation of the commission remained pending with the foreign ministry. We will soon write to the ministry again requesting to form the body," commerce minister Tofail Ahmed told the FE.
He said formation of the commission will help facilitate bilateral trade.
He cited the example of ban on potato imports from Bangladesh, saying this kind of body would have allowed both sides to discuss trade disputes.
Sources said the Russian ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev has recently sent a letter to agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury and informed about the restriction.
Matia handed over a copy of the letter to commerce minister Tofail Ahmed, requesting him to immediately sign an agreement for formation of JTC with Russia.
Earlier in April, the Russian ambassador in a meeting with the agriculture minister had also asked for the formation of a JTC.
A senior official at ministry of commerce (MoC) said Russia is interested to form a JTC with Bangladesh and it had forwarded a draft of an agreement to the ministry of foreign affairs.
He said six months back, Bangladesh embassy in Moscow in a letter to the MoC informed about Russia's willingness to form the JTC. The MoC convened an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the issue and requested the MoFA to complete the formation of the commission.
However, he said, no visible progress was made since then.
According to officials, in fiscal year 2013-14 Bangladesh exported potato worth US$34 million to different countries, with Moscow alone importing the produce valued at $9.0 million.
During the year Bangladesh exported 116,000 tonnes of potato, of which 20,000 tonnes found its way to Russia.
The two-way trade between Bangladesh and Russia reached nearly $600 million in fiscal year 2013-14, while Dhaka's export of goods to Russia was $283.35 million and import amounted to $286.4 million.
Bangladesh mainly exports knitwear, woven garments, jute yarn and twine, raw jute, leather goods, and frozen shrimps to Russia while its import includes fertiliser, metal-roll, and raw materials for the textile industry.
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