Bangladesh and Japan on Wednesday decided to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) on facilitating trade and business between the two countries. The decision came at a meeting between commerce minister Tipu Munshi and Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki at Bangladesh Secretariat, according to a statement. The minister said there is huge trade and investment potentials between the two countries if it is possible to solve the barriers to trade and business through the JWG. Currently, Bangladesh enjoys duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) market access to Japan. Mr. Tipu said a memorandum of understanding is supposed to be signed between Bangladesh Competition Commission and Japan Fair Trade Commission during the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Japan. He expected that the bilateral relation would strengthen further in future in the fields of investment and trade. Mr. Ito appreciated Bangladesh’s improvement in ease of doing business index and said his country is interested to increase trade and business with Bangladesh. He said Bangladesh could sign free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan as there is an opportunity to export readymade garment and pharmaceutical products to the Japanese market. The envoy stressed on forming the JWG for creating trade opportunities for both countries. Bangladesh exported goods worth US$ 1365.74 million to Japan in fiscal year 2018-19 while imported goods worth $ 1,852.50 million.
