Bangladesh, Indonesia push for early trade deal

Bangladesh and Indonesia stressed the first signing of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to improve the duty-free exports of potential commodities of the two nations in the first meeting of the Foreign Office Consultations, reported UNB.

The pending MoUs and agreements would be signed on a fast-track basis, and both countries will pursue sector-specific agenda and do the needful to expand the quantity of bilateral trade and investment.

Bangladesh also thanked Indonesia for its continued support for Rohingya repatriation and appreciated the last ASEAN leaders’ meeting which also known as for early repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Indonesia’s Director- General for the Asia Pacific and Africa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Kadir Jailani led respective delegations at the consultations.

They discussed the complete gamut of bilateral relations.

Bangladesh urged Indonesia to provide its readymade garments duty-free benefits rather than to impose safeguard measures on its textile products. Indonesia has introduced safeguards to safeguard its domestic industry.

The bilateral trade imbalance happens to be in favor of Indonesia and the two countries have decided to take measures to balance it.