CVDs affecting Indian duty-free benefit: Tofail

Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Saturday requested the Indian government to withdraw countervailing duties on Bangladeshi products saying that Bangladesh was not being benefitted from duty-free market access to India for imposition of 12-per cent CVDs.
Countervailing duties, also known as anti-subsidy duties, are trade import duties imposed under World Trade Organisation rules to neutralise the negative effects of subsidies.
At the inauguration of Bangladesh-India Cotton Fest at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel Dhaka in the city the commerce minister said India awarded Bangladesh duty- and quota-free market access of all products except alcohol and tobacco in 2011 but later imposed the CVDs on import from Bangladesh.
Due to CVDs and some tariff and nontariff barriers Bangladeshi exporters are not getting benefits, Tofail said.
‘Our people are not getting the benefits of 100-per cent duty free access to the Indian markers due the tariff and non-tariff barriers’, he said.
The Bangladesh Cotton Association and the Indian Cotton Association Limited in cooperation with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised the Bangladesh-India Cotton Festival 2016.
Speaking on the occasion, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association president Tapan Chowdhury said sometimes Indian cotton suppliers put Bangladeshi spinners at an adverse situation by withholding their supplies and on some occasion supplying goods with fluctuation in quality.
He emphasised on building a strong and long-lasting trade relationship between the cotton traders of Bangladesh and India to avoid such kind of impediments.
Bangladesh Cotton Association president Md Badsha Mia said, ‘For the last few years cotton import from India has been increasing gradually but our challenges are to procure the goods at competitive prices.’
Indian high commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla said despite downward trend in the global economy the trade and business between Bangladesh and India were on the rise.
It is a good sign that Bangladesh achieved 22-per cent export growth in India in the first six months of the current financial year 2015-16, he said.
Shringla hoped that the bilateral trade relations between the two countries would strengthen more in the coming days.
Indian Cotton Association Limited president Mahesh Sharda said both the countries would be gainers through the Cotton Fest as Bangladesh is the largest cotton importing country while India is the largest exporting country.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net