Dhaka, July 27: Barely a fortnight after agreeing in principle to initiate discussions on the Indo-Bangla Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Khaleda Zia government has set four pre-conditions for New Delhi before going ahead with the crucial negotiations later this year. "Bangladesh wants to have some early harvests by way of resolving trade disputes before going into the proposed free trade talks," the country's commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Choudhury has been quoted as saying by the leading English daily Independent.
Choudhury, who was addressing the overseas correspondents association of Bangladesh here, said that foremost among these prerequisites are "special and preferential treatment to Bangladeshi goods" by New Delhi.
The other conditions are consideration of comparative development stages of the two countries, resolving the problem of tariff, non-tariff and para-tariff barriers under one package and ensuring equitable share of trade by reducing the huge trade gap of one-billion us dollar, the report said.
"If these basis are not accepted, what are we going to negotiate about?," Choudhury said adding that, "this has to be the starting point of the negotiation. Otherwise, it will not be useful".
Only on July 16 Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and his Bangladeshi counterpart Morshed Khan had agreed after lengthy deliberations of joint economic commission of India and Bangladesh here to initiate discussions on FTA in October this year. Bureau Report