NEW DELHI, March 05, 2022 (BSS) - Bangladesh and India have agreed to open 
border haats and ensure 24 hours operation of Integrated Check Post (ICP) at 
Benapole-Petrapole soon to facilitate trade between the two neighbouring 
countries, Indian Commerce Ministry sources said. 

The border haats were closed for long and full time operation in Benapole-
Petrapole ICP was hampered due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

The decision for opening the border haats and implementation of 24x7 
operation of Benapole-Petrapole ICP was taken at the annual Bangladesh-India 
commerce secretary level meeting concluded here yesterday. 

Bangladesh Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and his Indian counterpart 
B.V.R Subrahmanyam led their respective sides at the meeting. Representatives 
of relevant departments from both the countries joined the meeting.

In a statement issued by Indian commerce ministry here today said that both 
sides held extensive discussion on a variety of issues of mutual interest 
when significant progress was made on multimodal connectivity between 
Bangladesh and India.

It said that discussion was also held on development of railway 
infrastructure, port infrastructure, Joint Study on Comprehensive Economic 
Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Regional connectivity through Multi-Modal 
Transportation, Harmonization of Standards and Mutual Recognition Agreement. 

The meeting also approved a Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) for developing 
container handling facility at Sirajganj Bazar to facilitate bilateral trade 
and agreed to strengthen regional connectivity through multi-model transport, 
the statement said.

The meeting was preceded by the 14th meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) 
on Trade, at the level of joint and additional secretaries of the ministry of 
commerce of both the countries. 

The next meetings of the JWG and Commerce Secretaries will be held in 
Bangladesh, at mutually convenient dates, the statement said. 

However, a source from Bangladesh side told BSS last evening that Bangladesh 
has raised some issues, which included lifting of anti-dumping duty on 
Bangladesh's jute products and removal of trade barriers, at the meeting. 

He said Bangladesh is long been demanding lifting of anti-dumping duty 
imposed by India on its jute products from 2017 for five years. 

Although the matter was prominently discussed in the last commerce secretary 
level meeting held in Dhaka on March last year, but no significant headway 
was made yet to this end, he added.

According to official sources, Bangladesh's export to India has shown a 
remarkable increase during the past several years. Data shows that total 
trade volume between India and Bangladesh in 2020-2021 financial year was 
about 9.9 billion US Dollars.

Of the total, Bangladesh's export to India was 1.3 billion US Dollars during 
the period, the highest in the history.