Bangladesh has reminded China of offering duty and quota-free market access of 17 more products to facilitate exports to the East Asian nation, officials said.
The reminder was given on Tuesday when a delegation of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka met commerce secretary Shubhashish Bose at his secretariat office.
Presently, some 60 per cent of Bangladesh's tariff line enjoys zero-tariff treatment to the Chinese market, excluding major export items like garment, leather, and footwear.
Bangladesh trade officials have identified 17 more tariff lines of major exportable items and requested China to include those in the zero-tariff treatment. However, the Chinese delegation members on Tuesday said they would wait for a decision from top officials in Beijing.
They also pushed the Bangladesh side for signing a 'letter of exchange' with China under which it will grant duty-free market access to 97 per cent tariff lines that it extended to the least-developed countries. In this case, Bangladesh will lose tariff preference it enjoys in the Chinese market under Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).
The delegation was told that Bangladesh is studying the possible impact of zero-tariff treatment on the APTA preference and expert opinion was sought from Geneva whether the Chinese offer violates relevant rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Commerce secretary Mr Bose told the FE that a remainder has been given so that 17 more products get zero-tariff preference, which will cover major Bangladeshi export items.
He said Bangladesh and China were in talks over conducting a joint feasibility study on a possible free trade area (FTA) deal. A first meeting of the joint study team will be held in January where the modalities of the study will be discussed.
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