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(From left) Bangladesh commerce minister Ghulam Muhammed Quader with Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee and Kallol Datta, vice-president of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury
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Calcutta, Sept. 28: Bangladesh today highlighted three hurdles to trade with India — lack of infrastructure, existence of tariff barriers and issues related to product certification by Indian authorities.
“It’s a pleasure to note that India has responded positively to our concerns of trade deficit. India has allowed duty-free and quota-free access of all items except tobacco and alcohol. An issue of concern for our business community is the existence of several non-tariff and para-tariff barriers. We need to bring these to a minimum level,” Bangladesh commerce minister Ghulam Muhammed Quader said at the annual general meeting of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today. He also made a pitch for the simplification of rules and regulations.
“The traders in Bangladesh will appreciate an improvement in Indian port facilities. Another bottleneck is the non-acceptance of quality certificates of many of our products by the India. The certification system is clumsy,” he said.
Quader said the recognition of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution by India’s National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories of India was necessary to overcome non-tariff barriers. Moreover, junior Indian customs officers are delaying the clearance of goods because they are unable to take critical decisions.
Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee said the state government had cleared a proposal to set up two ports at Rasulpur and Sagar. “We are framing the detailed project report. Both will be deep-sea ports. We will float expressions of interest,” he said.
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