Underlining that Rules of Origin (RoO) of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) might prevail over India’s newly adopted customs rules in case of any conflict, customs and trade officials in Bangladesh have, reportedly, maintained that India’s new customs rules are against the principles of SAFTA and similar trade agreements.
This was underlined in recent media reports, which added that in a letter written by Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) to the Commerce Ministry, it, reportedly, maintained ‘in the event of a conflict between a provision of these rules and a provision of the Rules of Origin, the provision of the Rules of Origin shall prevail to the extent of the conflict’ while underlining that exporters from Bangladesh should follow the SAFTA rules instead of new Indian rules and went to further, reportedly, add that to avail duty benefits under the trade agreement, Indian authorities had forced Indian importers to follow complex and demanding procedures.
Bangladeshi trade officials also, reportedly, maintained that the Government should also start consultation with India to resolve the issue.
