Bangladesh, Sri Lanka to have duty free market access: Cabinet

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for allowing duty-free market access to India for eight million pieces of garments per calendar year from Bangladesh without any sourcing condition.

Similarly, India would remove the sourcing condition and port restrictions on Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) of eight million pieces of garments for imports from Sri Lanka to India per calendar year.

In the case of Bangladesh, the move is modification of the earlier Cabinet approval given at its meeting held on 29th December, 2005 for market access for eight million pieces of garments with the sourcing condition for six million pieces and without any sourcing condition for two million.

This is in line with the procedure set down in the MOU signed between the two countries on September 16 last year.

This is expected to correct to some extent the trade imbalance of Bangladesh with India.

In the case of Sri Lanka, the Cabinet approved notification of the MOU dated October 5, 007 to operationalise TRQ in respect of three million pieces of garments.

It also decided to allow negotiating flexibility in respect of remaining three million pieces on Zero duty and two million pieces on 75 per cent margin of preference (MOP) as the negotiations proceed on items included in MOU dated October 5 last year.

Removal of sourcing condition and port restriction will facilitate operationalisation of TRQ without causing any further adverse revenue implication. This is expected to correct to some extent the trade imbalance of Sri Lanka with India.

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