New Delhi: Amidst the ongoing border tension, India and Bangladesh have agreed to extend the tenure of the existing bilateral trade treaty for another three months until May.

Official sources said the treaty expiring on February 4, 2003 has been extended, since the two sides have been unable to finalise the changes sought in the existing treaty.

Extension of the bilateral trade treaty also comes close on the heels of India granting deeper tariff concessions on 111 items exported from Bangladesh, under the fourth round of SAPTA (SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement) negotiations, which concluded in November 2002.

The tariff concessions on a comprehensive list of items, which includes marine products, cut flowers, nuts, meat, toiletries, perfumes and cosmetics, soaps and leather articles has been extended by India to Dhaka

India has extended tariff concessions ranging from 15 per cent to a high of 75 per cent of the basic customs duty on the range of products.

While the concessions have been extended by India to all SAARC member countries categorised as least developing countries (LDCs), Bangladesh is the main beneficiary since other LDCs – Bhutan and Nepal are already covered through bilateral preferential agreement with India.

Maldives had also benefited in a few tariff lines under these concessions granted by New Delhi.

PTI