Bangladesh urges India to remove anti-dumping duty

Bangladesh commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Tuesday requested his Indian counterpart Suresh Prabhu to take necessary measures to withdraw anti-dumping duty on Bangladeshi products as they met on the sidelines of WTO ministerial meeting in New Delhi.

“He (Munshi) urged his counterpart to lift the anti-dumping duties on our products as they held the meeting,” a commerce ministry spokesman told BSS in the Indian capital.

He said Munshi sought India to import more apparel products from Bangladesh and more Indian investment in Bangladesh.

Officials and business analysts in Dhaka said despite a general duty-free access of Bangladeshi products to India, several Indian states often impose taxes if the imported products appeared to be huge in volume to affect their local enterprises.

They said jute products and battery were examples of such Bangladeshi products to face such duties in Indian market.

A Bangladesh commerce ministry official said the Indian minister told Munshi that New Delhi was keen to keep the momentum of the existing, the best ever relations, between the two countries.

“He (Prabhu) assured that he will take all necessary measures to address the requests from Bangladesh,” it said.

Both the ministers were in agreement to further enhance the trade and economic relations in order to benefit of people of the two countries and expressed their satisfaction on the excellent bilateral relations.

Munshi, a freedom fighter himself, expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the support India extended during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.