India has sent a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) to the government asking it to sort out issues and finalise an agreement to take up dutyfree export of garments from Bangladesh under a special provision of the SAFTA arrangement.

The SAFTA agreement put into operation from July 1, 2006 has allowed a dutyfree export facility of six million pieces of RMG from Bangladesh to India. It has actually offered the facility to help strengthen Bangladesh exports to narrow down the huge balance of payment gap to some extent, which is now in favour of India.

The new move deals with how the both sides should handle the facility and work out a modality about how to implement the trade and shipment. The draft was handed over to the Bangladesh government about two months ago and the Tariff Commission is now busy working on it. It has already held two meetings with different stakeholders, attended by senior government officials, trade experts, and representatives of different chamber bodies and specialized agencies such as FBCCI, MCCI, BGMEA, BTMA and the NBR.