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Trade talks between Bangladesh and India remain stalled for a couple of years, despite frequent reminders from the former's side, mainly due to a lack of positive response from the latter, sources said.
Bangladesh government officials concerned are in the dark about why India is not accepting the Bangladeshi request to hold talks.
No tariff barriers currently exist to exporting Bangladeshi goods to India, but there are various non-tariff barriers, including anti-dumping duties, product quality certification, inadequate port infrastructure, land and sea connectivity restrictions, etc., a senior commerce official said.
He added that different types of meetings are held with a view to removing all these obstacles, among which the Commerce Secretary-level meeting is particularly very important.
No secretary-level meeting has been held for the last three years, official said.
The last Commerce Secretary-level meeting was held on March 4, 2022, in New Delhi, India. In that continuation, the 2023 meeting was supposed to be held in Dhaka.
As per the practice, Bangladesh proposed three convenient sets of dates between March 15 and April 15 in 2023 to organise the meeting in Dhaka as the host.
But since India has not replied to the Bangladesh side's request to date, the high-level meeting has not been held.
With the commerce secretary in the chair, Bangladesh's commerce ministry held a meeting on March 16 this year to review issues in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) activities.
The meeting decided to send a formal proposal to India for a commerce-level meeting, which is supposed to be held in Dhaka.
At the same time, it also decided to make a strong claim on the trade route from Bangladesh in the upcoming meeting.
When contacted last week, Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman said, "We are working on the issue. We will write to the Indian authorities concerned about the commerce-level meeting."
The commerce ministry is supposed to request the Indian authorities by proposing three possible sets of dates between April 15 and May 15 this year.
India exports significantly more to Bangladesh than it imports from the country.
The total bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India was approximately $14 billion in the fiscal year 2023-24. In this area, India is in a much better position, with a trade surplus of $9-10 billion annually.
After the Sheikh Hasina regime's fall, bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries are not up to the mark due to different issues, including transhipment, transit, minority rights, etc.
On April 8 this year, India cancelled the transhipment facility for Bangladesh's export cargoes to third countries via its land ports, including air routes.
After that, Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue (NBR) banned the import of yarn from India through all land ports.
Immediately after the transhipment facility's cancellation, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin claimed that this would not be a problem for Bangladesh.
Later, he said at a function that the cost of transporting Bangladeshi goods has increased by Tk 20 billion due to the cancellation of transhipment.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ousted in a student-led uprising in August 2024, is now staying in India.
The interim government led by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus is trying to bring her back and make her face multiple charges, including money laundering and crimes against humanity.
Bangladesh imported around $1.6 billion worth of cotton yarn from India in 2024. It exported apparel items of over $38 billion that year, and more than $1 billion worth of goods were exported via Indian land ports.
Experts said amid rising tension, both governments should try to improve bilateral ties, including in the area of trade.
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