India seeks free trade agreement with Bangladesh

India is looking to advance a comprehensive free trade agreement with Bangladesh, said India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday (7 March).

Speaking at the inaugural session of the India-Bangladesh Stakeholders meet, Piyush Goyal listed an uninterrupted supply chain, a joint production of defense equipment, and pharmaceuticals as four focus areas for strengthening the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and India, reports the Live Mint. 

The Indian minister also pressed for the need to explore potential areas of investment, which included textiles, jute products, leather, footwear, APIs for pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, digital health, education services, agribusiness, electronics and renewable energy.

India and Bangladesh will soon finalise the joint study on the proposed bilateral free trade agreement, aimed to boost economic ties, and was discussed by two sides agreed during a secretary-level talk on Friday in New Delhi, he added. 

Goyal also urged pharma industries of the two sides to explore joint manufacturing of vaccines and medicines.  

"During Covid-19, vaccines produced in India, - Covaxin and Covishield created a niche for themselves as safe vaccines. Time has now come for joint manufacturing of vaccines and other medicines," he said. 

"Since 2014 we have scaled up our trade and economic engagement as collaborators and not competitors," Goyal added. 

India and Bangladesh had decided in October last year to start talks on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).