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Dhaka has sought a two- month-time extension for submitting Bangladesh’s position paper on mid-term review of prolonged anti-dumping duty (ADD) imposed by trade-surplus India on Bangladesh’s jute-goods exports, sources say.
Apart from this tariff barrier, Bangladesh’s external trade, including with the next-door neighbour itself, faces non-tariff barriers (NTBs) like restrictions on third-country and inter-country shipment through Indian routes.
The commerce ministry of Bangladesh has already forwarded the formal request through the Bangladesh high commission in Delhi for the time needed for replies to the issues raised by the Indian side afresh.
Contacted over the trade spat, an official of the ministry said Dhaka could not take necessary preparation on submitting its position paper regarding the issues.
Besides, he added, Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) and Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA) have applied to the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) for extending the time for preparing various information and submitting replies to questionnaires.
Following the BJMA and BJSA appeal, the BTTC on July 24, 2025 requested the ministry of commerce (MoC) to take the next step for conveying the time-lag to the Indian authority playing the arbiter.
As per the BTTC request, “We have written to the Bangladesh high commission, New Delhi, for taking next course of action in this connection.”
Earlier, the commerce ministry was supposed to submit Bangladesh’s position paper and replies of local jute -goods exporters and producers in 30 days from the date of the review-initiation notification issued on June 30, 2025 by the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) of India, a commerce high official explains.
He mentions that the commerce ministry would take time to prepare Bangladesh’s position paper and other related works.
The phase of present investigation is counted from April 2024 to March 2025, making the hiatus in jute-trade shipment one-year long.
Besides, the trade tangle far lengthens as there have been periods of injury investigation from April 2021 to March 2022, April 2022 to March 2023, and April 2023 to March 2024.
The DGTR has launched the mid-term review following a request by the Indian associations concerned, including AP Mesta Twine Mills Association and Indian Jute Mills Association.
Jute goods exported from Bangladesh had already faced significant anti-dumping duty since 2017. Meanwhile, in March 2018, the Indian authority concerned initiated anti-circumvention investigation into import of jute sacking cloth from Bangladesh.
The Indian finance ministry (IFM) enhanced duty on Bangladesh’s sacking bags in June 2019.
The DGTR decided to conduct a sunset-review investigation and recommended extension of the ADD on jute goods imported from Bangladesh on behalf of the Indian traders concerned in September 2021. The IFM extended the duty on December 30, 2022.
After the Sheikh Hasina regime’s fall last year, bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries are not up to the mark, for reasons overtly involving transshipment, transit, minority rights, etc.
On April 8 this year, India cancelled the transshipment facility for Bangladesh’s export cargoes to third countries through its land ports to air routes, which leaves exporters in the lurch, with the consequence of shipment disruptions and trade-cost escalation.
Thereafter, Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) banned the import of yarn from India through all land ports.
On June 27, 2025, the neighbouring state imposed ban on import of certain woven fabrics and jute items from Bangladesh by land routes. It only allows freight through Nhava Sheva seaport, in a time-consuming-and cost-hiking detour.
Apart from the woven fabrics and jute items, it imposed port bans on the import of some items that include apparel and processed foods from Bangladesh on May 17 last.
Since 05 January 2017, Indian finance ministry has imposed ADD for five years on jute products from Bangladesh at rates ranging between $6.03 and $351.72 per tonne amid allegations of dumping goods like jute yarn, twine, jute sacking bags and hessian fabrics.
But, as yet, the tariff barrier in the form of ADD continues through Sunset Review done in 2022.
Md Hafizur Rahman, former director general of the WTO cell under the commerce ministry, said the mid-term review investigation was introduced at the request of representatives from the Indian jute associations. They requested for re-evaluation and enhancement of the ADD levied against import of jute from Bangladesh due to a decline in export prices of jute goods.
He explained that the prices of jute items exported to India from Bangladesh declined due to the currency depreciation.
Besides, they claimed that Bangladeshi exporters and producers were exporting jute goods beyond their installed capacity. They doubted that such producers were exporting such goods produced by other countries.
The total bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India was approximately $14 billion, in official count, in the fiscal year 2023-24, with India enjoying a much better position with a trade surplus of $9-10 billion annually.
In 2024-25, Bangladesh’s exports to India stood at around a peanut $2.0 billion while imports cost over $11.40 billion.
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