Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh have broadened their free trade agreement. The two neighbours have decided to expand the scope of discussion during the 15th Joint Working Group on Trade (JWG) meeting held on September 26 -27 in Dhaka.
The meeting was co-chaired by Vipul Bansal, Joint Secretary from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Noor Md MahbubulHaq, Additional Secretary, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Commerce.
The discussions revolved around enhancing trade intensity by addressing issues such as port restrictions, standard harmonization, essential commodity supply to Bangladesh, infrastructure development, regional connectivity via multi-modal transportation, and fortifying land customs stations, integrated check posts, and border markets.
These annual India-Bangladesh JWG Meetings serve as a platform for dialogue on crucial trade matters and exploring opportunities for economic and technical cooperation. They aim to promote, facilitate, expand, and diversify bilateral trade with an emphasis on equality and mutual benefit. These have proven instrumental in swiftly resolving bilateral challenges by eliminating trade barriers, streamlining customs processes, and upgrading infrastructure, logistics, and transit facilities to ensure smoother cross-border trade.
Trade Relations
Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trade partner of Bangladesh in Asia. Despite Covid-19 related disruptions, bilateral trade grew at an unprecedented rate of almost 44% from USD 10.78 bn in FY21 to US$ 18.14 bn in FY22. Exports to Bangladesh touched above US$ 16 bn as against US$ 9.6 bn the previous financial year. India is Bangladesh’s largest export destination in Asia.
India-Bangladesh relations are not limited to bilateral trade, and their growth stories are intertwined. Bangladesh is the biggest development partner of India today. According to government statistics, India has extended three Lines of Credits (LoC) to Bangladesh in the last eight years amounting to around US$ 8 bn for development of infrastructure in various sectors including roads, railways, shipping and ports. In addition to LoCs, India has been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects including, construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline for carriage of High-Speed Diesel into Bangladesh.
