Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Bangladesh and Nepal will be finalized in the next three months to take the level of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries to a new height.
The decision was taken during the two-day Bangladesh-Nepal eighth Commerce Secretary-level meeting at Hotel Intercontinental in Dhaka on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In addition to PTA, a number of important issues including increasing electricity imports, expanding transit facilities, simplifying visa procedures, trade facilitation and regional cooperation were discussed in the meeting, according to Commerce Ministry sources.
Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman led the Bangladesh delegation while the Nepalese delegation was led by Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ram Prasad Ghimire.
Commerce Ministry officials said that under the PTA, certain products from the two countries will receive duty exemptions or reduced duties, which will help boost bilateral trade.
Although discussions for signing the PTA were going on for a long time, the agreement could not be finalized for various reasons. In this meeting, a specific deadline was set to overcome that impasse.
Another important topic for discussion at the meeting was power trade. Currently, 40 MW power is being imported to from Nepal, under Bangladesh-Nepal-India Tripartite Agreement.
In order to further increase this supply, Bangladesh proposed to import an additional 20 MW from Nepal. Discussions were also held on keeping the path open for importing more power in future by utilizing the huge potential of Nepal's hydropower sector.
Transit facilities were another important agenda of the meeting. Nepal is interested in increasing the opportunity to transport goods to third countries using the territory of Bangladesh.
In this regard, the issue of expanding transit facilities by rail as well as waterways under the existing bilateral agreement came up for discussion. In addition, emphasis was placed on strengthening Bangladesh-Nepal-India trilateral cooperation.
In addition, discussions were held on enhancing cooperation on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, besides technical barriers to trade (TBT) to be removed to strengthen food safety and product quality control.
