The meeting will be held in Dhaka and last for two days, said an official at Ministry of Commerce and Supplies. The official informed myrepublica.com that the talks would focus on starting zero tariff trade on commodities of mutual export interests, movement of Nepali containers in Bangladesh and expediting trade through railways via Rohanpur-Singhbad route. [break]
Despite high trading potential and geographical proximity, the annual bilateral trade volume between the two countries remains very low. In 2008/09, the bilateral trade was valued at Rs 5.14 billion, which was barely 10 percent of the total trade Nepal conducts in the South Asian region.
To do away with this dismal trading picture, Nepal has exchanged a list of 146 items seeking elimination of tariffs on some and meaningful reduction of duties on the others. The list mainly includes agricultural produces, fast moving consumer goods, beer and other manufacturing products.
Bangladesh currently imposes customs duty of up to 40 percent on agricultural products, which form the biggest chunk of Nepal´s exports. Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) says this has largely impeded exports growth. Bangladesh too has exchanged a list of 184 items, seeking facility in reciprocal terms.
“During the talks, we will negotiate out items in which we can go for starting zero tariff facility and items in which we can go for gradual but meaningful reduction in duty,” the source said.
The two South Asian nations also hope to finalize bilateral transport movement agreement. Though Bangladesh has offered its ports to Nepal for third country trade and transit, it so far has not allowed movement of containers inside its territory.
Principally, both the countries are open to such movement of cargo vehicles. But Nepal had not been able to exploit the potential of Bangladesh being the transit country, as India in the past did not allow Nepali vehicles through its border to Bangladesh. Such restrictions had also hit bilateral trade.
“We hope to finalize the vehicular movement agreement this time round because India has finally approved such movements of vehicles,” the source added.
Likewise, the two sides would also hold talks on effective utilization of Kakarbhitta-Fulbari-Banglabandh road transit. Though this road transit has been the major gateway of bilateral trade, Nepal has seriously lagged behind in making effective use of this facility because of poor coordination at the Indo-Bangladeshi customs.
“Apart from this, we will also talk about starting trade via rail route of Rohanpur-Singhbad, which is a broad gauge railway line and is connected with our dry port in Birgunj through Indian railways network,” said the source.
If the two sides managed to operationalize this route, traders said it would greatly help facilitate trade between the two countries.
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