Bangladesh to cut duty for items from other SAARC countries

Bangladesh will soon give duty concession in the range of 10 to 20 percent to 116 products from six other member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

In return, the six SAARC countries will give duty concession, ranging from 10 to 75 percent, to 358 products from Bangladesh by Jan. 31, the New Age reported Wednesday.

The products that Dhaka will give duty concession include freshfruits, spices, coconut, coconut oil, asparagus, dog food, aircraft, tractor, plasters and wooden furniture.

The concession will be given on a reciprocal basis in line withthe fourth round of negotiations under South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), which expired in December 2003.

The sixth meeting of the committee of experts on the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement in New Delhi from Dec. 4 to 6 last year set the Jan. 31 deadline for all the member countries to complete customs notification about the reciprocal duty concessions.

Bangladesh will give duty concession to 11 products from Sri Lanka, 29 from India, 46 from Pakistan and 16 from Bhutan in the range of 10 to 15 percent.

Eight products from Nepal will get a duty concession between 10 to 20 percent and six from the Maldives20 percent.

Some 5,000 products from Bangladesh have got duty concession inthe other member countries of the regional forum since the SAPTA agreement was signed in 1993.

The duty concession that will be notified by Jan. 31 is the last of its kind as the member countries have agreed not to initiate any more negotiation under SAPTA as the SAFTA will take effect from Jan. 1, 2006.

Source: Xinhua