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
