Bangladesh and Iran have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to help boost exports by removing trade barriers, an industries ministry official said.
The main objectives of the MoU are to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of standards, metrology, conformity assessment, testing and calibration, management system and other related activities, with the common aim of learning each other's experience for facilitating trade.
Both the countries, according to the memorandum, also agreed to exchange standards, technical regulations and related publications in identified areas to facilitate trade activities and eliminate trade barriers.
The countries have also agreed to make discount on the inspection and testing prices of their respective labs, the draft deal says.
Senior officials of Bangladesh standards and Testing Institute and Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran will sign the memorandum.
"There are many trade barriers in both-way trade, we are working to eliminate those through mutual understanding. Signing of the MOU is a part of that," director general of BSTI, Iqramul Hauq told the FE last week.
"It is not only intended to eliminate trade barriers between the countries, also a cooperation agreement of the parties to upgrade their standards of testing to a certain level," he added.
"Signing of the MoU will also help the country make the same types of agreement with other Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, which can open doors to further boost of local goods," the BSTI DG said.
Chairman of Bangladesh Jute Association (BJA) Mahfuzul Haque hailing the government's initiative to sign the MoU said it is a long standing demand of local exporters.
"This (MoU) will certainly help Bangladesh to boost exports in the coming years to the Islamic country," he added.
An additional secretary of ministry of industries, preferring anonymity, said they are at the end of collecting opinions from all parties and planning to sit together in early next month to finalise the memorandum.
"We're almost done and expect to send it to the foreign ministry for further review in the first week of April," he added.
However, both way trade for a long is infavour of Bangladesh, although it has been narrowing since fiscal 2012-13.
Present trade gap between the countries is US$52.01 million, which was $70.31 in 2011-12 fiscal.
More than 70 per cent of local export to the Islamic Republic is raw jute and jute goods, and other products include animal origin, oil seeds, fruits, grains, seed, fruit, organic chemicals, pharmaceutical products, raw hides and skins, aluminum table ware, special woven or tufted fabric, lace, tapestry, electrical and electronic equipment and live animals.
On the other hand, the country imports ceramic tableware and giftware, stone made articles, carpets, spices etc from Iran.
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Dhaka, Tehran move to sign memo to remove trade barriers
Badrul Ahsan | Published: March 29, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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