Nepal-Bangladesh trade talks to start

Nepal and Bangladesh will sit for trade talks tomorrow in Dhaka.
The long due joint secretary-level technical meeting that was postponed from last September will prepare a ground for the formal signing of a trade agreement by the commerce secretary level meeting to be held soon.

Likewise, the one-day meeting is also expected to finalise the modality on full-fledged cargo movement through Bangladeshi ports and approve the list of goods for duty free entry to each other's market, apart from Kathmandu-Dhaka bus service to facilitate free movement of people between the two South Asian countries.

Joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya is leading the Nepali team. "The meeting will finalise issues on application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, duty-free access to each other's goods and cargo movement through Chittagong and Mongla ports," he said, before leaving for Dhaka.

The secretary-level talks had previously assigned joint secretaries of both the countries to finalise these issues joint-secretaries at commerce ministries of both countries had been asked to finalise the implementation modalities for different agreements signed at secretary-level meeting held in Kathmandu on July 30, 2012.
The meeting will discuss on the finalisation of the operation modality on carriage transit cargo through Chittagong and Mongla ports in Bangladesh.

During the secretary-level meeting held in Kathmandu last July, Dhaka had agreed to provide zero-tariff access to some 100 Nepali goods like farm products. Nepal had requested for duty free entry of 146 products. Bangladesh had also demanded zero-tariff on entry of some of its goods to the Nepali market.

Nepal mainly exports lentils, vegetables, vegetable seeds, hides, ginger, animal feeds and fruits to Bangladesh, whereas it imports pharmaceutical goods, electronics, juice, medicines, cotton, solar batteries, readymade garments, cosmetic items, raw jute and plastic furniture from Bangladesh.
Nepal has exported goods worth Rs 2.57 billion to Bangladesh in the last fiscal year 2011-12, whereas imported goods worth Rs 8.09 billion from Bangladesh, according to Trade and Export Promotion Center data.