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After a gap of eight years, India and Bangladesh are set to resume official-level trade talks. Bilateral trade talks between the Commerce Secretaries of the two countries are set to be held on March 28 and 29.
At an interaction organised by CII with the Bangladesh Commerce Secretary, Mr Md. Ghulam Hussain, here on Tuesday, the Joint Secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr Arvind Mehta, said that besides the problems of resource constraints, high tariffs on trade products are costing the exchequers of the two countries dearly.
“Trade is happening. It is happening partly through formal but mostly through informal channels due to higher tariffs. So, the loser is the exchequer,” he said.
He said Bangladesh needs to “bring down peak tariff levels even in the sensitive lists,” adding that this would open up bigger business opportunities for stakeholders in both countries.
The High Commissioner of Bangladesh in India, Mr Tariq A.. Karim, proposed that the countries in the region consider delinking transactions from dollar and switch to the Indian currency to facilitate trade.
However, while lauding India's decision to conduct duty-free trade with Bangladesh on several items, Mr Hussain stressed on the need to develop better infrastructure and an environment conducive to more trade.
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