Nepal requests Bangladesh to hold postponed meeting

Nepal has requested Bangladesh to hold the commerce secretary-level meeting, which was postponed after Nepal notified the Bangladeshi side about its inability to manage time due to ongoing crises.

The meeting originally scheduled for mid-October 2015 in Dhaka.

According to Kathmandu Post reports, the two sides are expected to sign an agreement on providing easier market access to each other’s products and remove barriers to trade.

As per an understanding reached earlier, Bangladesh will provide duty-free access to 108 Nepali products-most of which are agriculture-related while Nepal will provide preferential treatment to 50 Bangladeshi goods.

Commerce Secretary Naindra Upadhyaya said the request was made in the last week of January after the conclusion of the Bangladesh Trade Fair in Kathmandu in third week of January. “We have not received a feedback so far,” he added.

Nepal has also forwarded two draft memoranda of understanding (MoU) on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, according to Upadhyaya.

Under the MoU, the two sides will give recognition to quality certificates of each others’ products. The TBT-related MoU deals with quality certificates of manufactured products, while MoU on SPS deals with quality of agriculture products.

“The issues related to TBT and SPS measures have already been resolved, so the MoUs are ready for signing in the next meeting,” Upadhyaya, adding the two sides are also most likely to sign an agreement on providing market access to goods.

With Bangladesh providing duty-free access to Nepali products, it had sought reciprocal measures from Nepal during the last joint secretary-level meeting held in Kathmandu in April, 2015.

But Nepal has asked the Bangladeshi side to implement previously-pledged concessions first.

“As Bangladesh agreed to offer duty-free access to Nepali products unilaterally, while Nepal offered
preferential treatment, we have urged them to implement these concessions first,” said Upadhyaya. “There has been a consensus on our position to a large extent,” Upadhyaya added.

Most of the Bangladeshi items to which Nepal wants to give preferential treatment are fish, medicines, potatoes and industrial goods. Bangladesh has also been asking duty-free access to 64 products.

Commerce Ministry officials said Nepal has offered to reduce customs duty by 5 percentage points if the duty structure is higher than 15 percent, and by 3 percentage points if the duty level is below 15 percent.

Nepal has given similar preferential treatment to Chinese products as per an agreement signed with China’s Tibet.

Nepal is also considering offering duty-free access to certain Bangladeshi products in line with the South Asia Free Trade Area Agreement (Safta) within 2016.

Ministry officials said it plans to sign an agreement with Bangladesh after settling pending issues at the joint secretary-level meeting.

During the last bilateral meeting, Bangladesh had agreed to simplify the  process of granting visa on arrival to Nepalis at two border points, Banglabandha and Burimari.

Although the facility is already in force, travellers have to undergo a lengthy documentation procedure.

Bangladesh had expressed its willingness to cut the paperwork during the last bilateral trade talks.

The two sides had also agreed to seek India’s cooperation to issue visa on arrival to Nepalis in Bangladesh if any Nepali reaches Bangladesh by land.

The facility is currently applicable only for arrivals by air.