Chairman National board of Revenue Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that NBR has undertaken a number of projects for implementation of the TFA. While addressing at a Round Table on Trade Facilitation held in Dhaka on 18 April. Government has decided to establish a National Single Window (NSW) for facilitation of trade and NBR will act as the lead agency, he added. He also assured that NBR will be extending all cooperation to the businesses for expanding the export basket of the country in order to achieve $50 billion export target by 2021.
ICC Bangladesh organized the Round-Tabel jointly with ICC Paris & Global Alliance. It may be 
mentioned that presently ICC Paris is conducting jointly with Global Alliance a number of the projects on trade facilitation in five countries Vietnam, Colombia, Ghana- Kenya, Sri Lanka & Morocco. Now plan to add 15 additional countries including Bangladesh for Trade Facilitation project. The round table is part of that plan to identify suitable project for Bangladesh.
Mr. Jose R Perales Hernandez, Deputy Director – Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, Washington and Ms. Valerie Claire Picard, Deputy Director – Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, ICC Paris presented the projects under implementation in various countries.
The Alliance was launched at the WTO 10th Ministerial Conference in December 2015 and is supported by the governments of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. The Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) is a binding multilateral trade agreement between members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The TFA was concluded in December 2013 and officially entered into force in February 2017. Bangladesh has ratified WTO TFA on 27 September 2016.
Mr. Shubhashish Bose, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in his speech said Bangladesh has already pursuing liberalized trading regime. All rules, regulations and statutory orders related to trade facilitation are published and made available in the website. Import licensing system was abolished back in 1985 for all products other than the products which require special import permit for health, environment and other reason; number of pre-clearance signatures has gone down to 5 from 25 and export clearance time for 95% of consignments has been reduced from 72 hours in 1999 to 3 hours now. Customs is trying to further reduce the procedure and release time by automation.
ICC Bangladesh President Mahbubur Rahman thanked the NBR Chairman and Commerce Secretary for joining the Roundtable and for assuring the businesses to extend all the infrastructure and logistical support required to increase the export of Bangladesh.
Incepta Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Abdul Muktadir suggested for setting up a help desk at NBR to respond to the queries regarding HS Code as well as other information to facilitate both export and import of raw materials and capital machineries. Mr. Md. Fazlul Hoque, Managing Director, Plummy Fashions suggested for quick delivery of the samples that are sent to exporters by
buyers from the Dhaka Custom House. Delays in responding to the queries of the buyers in most cases lead to loss of business. We have to be prompt in responding to the request of the buyers in order to be competitive, he added.
Former FBCCI President A.K. Azad, DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Abdul Muktadir, ICC Bangladesh Executive Board Member Mr. Md. Fazlul Hoque, ICC Bangladesh Banking Commission Chairman & Chief Executive officer BIAC Mr. Muhammad A. Rumee Ali, S.S. Shipping & Chartering Managing Director Mr. Shahjahan Khan, Bengal Shipping Line Ltd. Chairman Mr. Mohammad Abdul Aawal, World Economic Forum Government Engagement Lead, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan Sheikh Tanjib Islam, Apex Footwear Limited CCO Syed Masud Nizam & ICC Bangladesh Secretary General Ataur Rahman attended the meeting among others.
