The Second Meeting on Preferential Trade Agreement between the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (GoB) was held at the Ministry of Economic Affairs on 16 June 2020 through a Video Conference.
The Bhutanese delegation was led by Mr. Sonam Tenzin, Director General, Department of Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Bangladeshi delegation was led by Ms. Sharifa Khan, Additional Secretary (FTA), Ministry of Commerce. The Ambassador of Bangladesh to Bhutan and the Ambassador-designate of Bhutan to Bangladesh also attended the Video Conference.
The main objective of the meeting was to review and finalize the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Bhutan and Bangladesh and to formalize the existing arrangement as well as the agreements reached between the Hon’ble Lyonchen and Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh during the former’s State Visit to Bangladesh in April 2019.
The meeting reviewed and discussed the draft text of the Preferential Trade Agreement between two countries and discussed the Rules of Origin, Modality for Tariff Reduction/Elimination, request/offer from the two sides and products list to be included under the proposed agreement. The meeting also agreed on a tentative work plan highlighting major programs aimed towards the early finalization of the Preferential Trade Agreement.
