Bangladesh and Nepal will discuss trade facilitation and elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers at the fourth commerce secretary-level trade talks scheduled to start on Wednesday in Kathmandu.

Bangladesh will seek unrestricted exports facility for its 64 goods including fish products, medicines, juice, soft drinks, raw jute and some agricultural products to the Nepali market.

Similarly, Nepal is expected to ask Bangladesh to allow unrestricted entry for traders. Currently, operators of loaded containers are permitted travel only up to the Inland Container Depot situated in Banglabandha.

Bangladesh is one of the main export destinations for Nepal as the country imports lentils, fruits and fruit juice, wheat, oil cakes, hide and skin and vegetables from the Himalayan country.

Nepal's exports stood at $9.5 million in 2017, down 13.3 percent from the previous year. 

Similarly, Nepal has been importing pharmaceutical goods, electronics, juice, medicines, cotton, solar batteries, readymade garments, cosmetic items, raw jute and plastic furniture from Bangladesh. In 2016-17, Nepal imported goods worth Rs4.22 billion from Bangladesh.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Nepal will ask Bangladesh to address hurdles to exporting acrylic yarn to Bangladesh, harmonise sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and review the list of 108 Nepali products which have duty free access to the Bangladesh market.

 According to The Kathmandu Post, the two-day meeting will also discuss preferential treatment for Bangladeshi products in the Nepali market, said the ministry.

Ministry spokesperson Rabi Shankar Sainju said a 11-member Bangladeshi delegation would be arriving in Kathmandu to participate in the meeting.

The two countries agreed to hold annual trade talks at the secretary level in 2008. Following the opening of Kakarbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabandha transit route in 1997, Bangladesh has permitted Nepal to use the port facilities in Mongla. Bangladesh has also provided an additional rail transit corridor to Nepal via Rohonpur-Sighbad.

However, Nepali exporters are still facing a number of hurdles while exporting goods to India and third countries including Bangladesh.

According to a study conducted by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (Sawtee) in 2012, SPS and technical barriers to trade (TBT) make up 80-85 percent of the non-tariff barriers to Nepali exports.