EEC postpones visit to BD over amendments to draft deal

Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has postponed its visit to Bangladesh until February next due to further amendments to the draft deal on trade and economic cooperation, officials said.

A high-powered delegation of EEC was supposed to visit Bangladesh on November 15-19 in order to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states, a high official of the commerce ministry has said.

 "The commission has most recently postponed its visit to Bangladesh until February next. It has also sent the draft MoU to Bangladesh with amendments for the third time," he added.

Bangladesh has sent the draft MoU to the EEC. Earlier, the commission had amended the draft two times by putting its opinions, he also said.

"EEC has sent the draft by putting its opinions for the third time. We have requested the foreign affairs ministry to take required steps in this regard," Additional Secretary of the commerce ministry Md Shafiqul Islam told the FE.

The EEU comprises five northern Eurasian countries - Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. These nations have common customs border and a single market of 183 million people and gross domestic product of over US $4.0 trillion. The commerce ministry has recently finalised the draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard which earlier the EEU had forwarded to Bangladesh embassy in Moscow, the officials added.

A senior trade official told the FE that after finalising the MoU, it was sent for the third time to the EEU through the foreign ministry for their final look. "We think that signing the MoU with the EEU is urgent to expand the market for Bangladeshi goods there," a high official of the foreign ministry said.

The goal of cooperation between the parties within the framework of this deal is to promote trade and bolster economic and comprehensive cooperation between EEU member states and Bangladesh towards a higher volume of mutual trade and investments, elimination of barriers to trade and investment flows and closer collaboration in areas of mutual interests, according to the draft MoU.

The official said despite having immense potential of Bangladeshi goods in East European countries, the market access is still very limited. Presently, Bangladeshi goods have to take a detour to enter these countries mainly through Germany and Turkey.

Signing the MoU will open the door for direct entry of goods, leading to an increase in export to those countries, he said. "We are also interested to sign the agreement to create an environment for seeking duty-free market access to Russia for which we are trying for over ten years," he said.

Trade officials said Russia, being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), is now not eligible for negotiating with Bangladesh bilaterally on duty-free market access since the country shares common border with other member nations in the group.

Bangladesh will have to negotiate with the EEU to get free market access of products to any of EEU member countries. Signing the MoU with the EEU may create a scope for getting duty-free access to the bloc, the officials think.

Bangladeshi goods have immense potential on the Russian market. Export of Bangladeshi products to Russia has increased fivefold during the last five years, amounting to US $314.292 million in the fiscal year 2015-2016.

Bangladesh mainly exports apparels, jute, frozen foods, tea, leather, home textiles and ceramic products. Its imports include cereals, minerals, chemical products, plastic products, metal, machinery and mechanical equipment, a senior commerce ministry official said.

Statistics show that Bangladesh's export of goods to EEU member states is on the rise with $321.91 million turnover in the last fiscal year from $302 million in FY 2014-15.

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