An hour of Faruk's valuable time at the Indian ministry should soon solve the problem.
Also, with a bit of luck we could sell enough fish and gadha marka batteries at the border haats to really close the trade gap.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bdmailer@...> wrote:
>
> Trade gap with Delhi increases to $2.91b
>
>
> A high-powered team headed by Commerce Minister Faruk Khan left for
> India Thursday to find out ways to address the huge trade gap with
> India.The 23-member delegation including 16 business leaders will take
> up issues related to increasing bilateral relation between the two
> neighbouring countries.
>
> It may be mentioned that Bangladesh's trade imbalance with India has
> widened by $1.37 billion over the last five years mainly due to
> imposition of para-tariff and non-tariff barriers on Bangladeshi
> products by Indian authorities.
>
> The country's trade gap with India increased to nearly $ 2.91 billion
> in 2009-10 fiscal year against $ 1.62 billion in 2005-06 fiscal, a
> Commerce Ministry statement said.
>
> The statement, however, said Bangladesh's trade imbalance continued to
> rise in the last five fiscal years following a mismatch between the
> country's exports to India and imports from its neighbour.
>
> Bangladesh exported products worth of $ 241.96 million in 2005-06
> fiscal year against its imports of $ 1868 million.
>
> On the other hand, the country's total exports to India marked a
> marginal rise to $ 304 million in 2009-10 fiscal as against its
> imports from India amounting to $ 3213 million, the commerce ministry
> figures showed.
>
> Terming various para-tariff and non-tariff barriers main hindrances to
> the growth of Bangladesh's exports to India, the commerce ministry
> statement said exporters and businessmen said they often face a good
> number of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers while exporting to
> India.
>
> These include education tax at 0.08 per cent and 0.16 per cent on
> tariff value for cotton items and non cotton items, Indian customs
> authority asks for laboratory test for each and every consignment of
> food products, cosmetics, leather and textile products. Exporters are
> subjected to pay Rs. 3000 as laboratory test fee for each type of food
> items. The laboratory report normally takes 15-20 days as the samples
> are sent by ordinary mails to the laboratories located far from the
> land customs stations which delays the clearance of consignment.
>
> Furthermore, the Indian authorities have recently imposed 18 per cent
> tax and value added tax (VAT) as central value added tax, Special
> Central Vat and Education Tax on apparels of Bangladesh origin defying
> the SAFTA agreement.
>
> Under the SAFTA list of sensitive goods, India is supposed to provide
> duty-free access to 8.0 million pieces of apparels originating from
> Bangladesh from 2008.
>
> Original SAFTA certificate issued by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB)
> is not accepted by Indian customs at Agartala. Indian customs men ask
> both the exporters and importers to submit details of rules of origin
> calculation along with the documents, ignoring the set criteria of the
> regional agreement, according to the list.
>
> Sanitary import permit has been made mandatory for Indian importers of
> processed food, toiletries and cosmetics from Bangladesh.
>
> Indian government has recently imposed 18 per cent extra duty on
> cement imports from Bangladesh, affecting cement exports to India's
> North Eastern region.
>
> Packaging requirement has been specified for food items with maximum
> retail price, standard unit, month and year of packaging to be
> inscribed on the packets. All pre-packaged commodities like processed
> foods, cosmetics, toiletries, spices imported by India requires
> generic and common name of the commodity packed, net quantity in terms
> of standard unit of weights and measures.
>
> Non-tariff barrier like inordinate delay in clearance of Bangladeshi
> goods from customs for various reasons, including non-availability of
> their designated officers and certificates from departments concerned
> of the Indian government causes problems for Bangladeshi exporters.
>
> Besides, inadequate physical facilities like warehousing,
> transshipment yard, parking yard and connecting roads at land customs
> stations of India also hinder exports from Bangladesh, the list
> pointed out.
>
> The Bangladesh delegation now in India will sign two agreements on
> border hat and standard operating procedures (SOP) on truck movement
> between the two countries on October 23.
>
> Two places in both the countries have been initially selected for the
> hat. The hat will be located at Baliamari in Kurigram district and
> Lawar Ghar in Sunamganj district in Bangladesh and Kalai Char and Bala
> in Meghalaya in India. It is expected that the hat will start by
> December this year.
>
> A number of issues including removal of tariff and non-tariff
> barriers, duty-free access to Indian market, further reduction of 61
> items from India's negative list, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and
> investment, relaxing universal Indian ban on cotton export to
> Bangladesh are likely to dominate official talks between Bangladesh
> and India.
>
> The list of 61 items includes 49 ready-made garment (RMG) products.
> The major goods under 61 items of the Indian sensitive list include
> different kinds of RMG, soybean oil, refined palm oil, aviation
> turbine fuel and fuel oil, natural rubber (smoked sheets), toilet or
> facial tissue stock, sanitary napkin, all kinds of paper or paperboard
> labels and silk fabrics.
>
> Meetings will be held between Commerce Minister of Bangladesh and
> Industries Minister Ananda Sharma and Minister for Development of
> North Eastern Region PK Handik of India.
>
> The delegation will also participate in discussions with the leaders
> of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and
> Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), among others.
>
> The team is expected to come back on October 24 after the four-day visit.
>
> http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=115426&date=2010-10-22
>
------------------------------------
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