The Hindu Business Line : India, Bangladesh bilateral trade can touch $5 billion: Kamal Nath

THE Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, has said that the existing level of bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh, currently at about $2 billion, could be increased easily to $5 billion.

Addressing the `Business meeting with the Commerce Minister of Bangladesh' organised by the FICCI, Mr Kamal Nath said: "The present level of trade is certainly not commensurate with the potential that exists. Given the complementarities of our economies and the geographical juxtaposition that nature has gifted us, the actual level of trade should be many times more, higher by an order of magnitude."

The Minister said that India recognised the sizeable imbalance in the trade between India and Bangladesh but noted that a negative trade balance was not in itself a bad thing. It is indicative of the growing demands of an emerging economy, he said.

On the constraints in the way of increased trade, he said that one such hurdle in rapid growth of trade in the north-eastern region of India was the inadequate access to transport of cargo through land routes in the territory of each other's country. The land route access would make the direct trade between the two countries most economical and viable as this region is blessed with direct road and rail links, which are usable around the year.

Mr Altaf Hossain Choudhary , Commerce Minister of Bangladesh, said that the manufacturing base of Bangladesh had witnessed an appreciable expansion and diversity.

"While newer products have come up, existing products have undergone laudable improvement in quality, design and price competitiveness," he added. He also said that since Bangladesh's export basket was far less expensive as compared to that of India's, it became extremely difficult for its exporters to conduct export operations when faced with any kind of barrier.

Some of these barriers currently affecting the flow of exports to India, he said, included labelling requirements for jute bags, complex registration procedure for pharmaceuticals, chemical tests for leather and leather products.