KARACHI, March 29: A strong Bangladesh trade delegation on Tuesday held a meeting on the sidelines of Expo Pakistan 2006, with Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Bosan and identified areas of interest for boosting bilateral trade.

Officials of both the sides pointed out that the biggest hurdle in enhancing two-way trade was high freight charges which make their products uncompetitive.

Around 50-member Bangladesh trade delegation is presently, on a visit to Pakistan to attend Expo 2006. Importers and distributors mostly dealing with essential commodities, including fresh fruits and vegetables, wheat, rice, cotton and dairy products held a meeting with the minister.

The delegation was accompanied by Commercial Secretary at Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka Ms Roubina Tufiq Shah. While talking to Dawn on telephone she pointed out that the meeting had been fruitful and result-oriented.

She said that it was strongly felt by both the sides that a major obstacle in way of boosting bilateral trade between Pakistan and Bangladesh was high freight charges.

The Bangladesh delegation members cited several examples where they could have imported commodities from Pakistan but high freight charges compelled them to opt for other regional countries.

It was also pointed out that Bangladesh presently imported fresh fruits and vegetables from Pakistan and was also keen to import other essential goods such as rice, spices, packaged food, cotton, wheat and dairy products etc.

A member of the delegation informed the Pakistani side that owing to a big difference in freight charges from Dhaka to India and Pakistan, the importers are forced to divert their source. He further said that for importing fresh fruits and vegetables from India they had to pay very small amount towards freight but when imported from Pakistan high freight charges had to be paid.

Similarly, the Bangladesh delegation members said that wheat imported from Australia cost less owing to lesser freight and in many cases the difference goes as high $15 to $20 per ton when it is imported from Pakistan. Consequently, similar is the case with import of rice and other essential products.

It was also pointed out that wheat imported from India cost at around $176 to $177 per ton and from Australia at around $185, but from Pakistan higher freight charges brings the difference up to $20 per ton.

The meeting was also attended by Secretary MINFAL Ismail Qureshi and officials of Plant Protection department.

Another member of delegation said that Bangladesh imports Kinno from Pakistan due to its best quality but have to import other citrus fruits from Nepal and Bhutan due to proximity and freight advantage.

However, it was suggested that a joint shipping line directly operating between Karachi and Chittagong should be established if both the countries have to witness substantial growth in their bilateral trade.