President of ICC Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman said robust expansion of international trade would not be materialised without the existence and proper use of such rules. Without an uniform set of rules to guide banks from different countries, contracting parties will not be able to easily traverse the maze of different national documentary credit regulations and as a result costs of business will go up as well as international trade will suffer, he said.

Rahman made the observations while inaugurating a day-long workshop on the latest international trade rules for letters of credit namely ‘UCP 600’ oranised by International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh and German Technical Cooperation in Chittagong on Saturday, said a press release. He mentioned that documentary credit was an integral part of the international trade system as it reduced risks and facilitated transactions of about 20 per cent of the total yearly worldwide international trade that depends on letters of credit.

Terming Bangladesh being situated at the crossroads of the world’s trade routes ICCB president said Bangladesh substantially benefited from this. Total international trade of Bangladesh grew by 17.19 per cent in 2006-07 fiscal reaching at $29.6 billion, with broad-based growth with most of the Bangladesh’s major trading partners, Rahman added.

Stressing the need to build the professional skills of officials to deal with international trade, Rahman said that in many industries, ranging from banks and financial institutions to ready made garments, there was no alternative to training for capacity building.