The government has started preparing the draft trade facilitation agreement (TFA) to submit it to BIMSTEC, proposing duty-free market access to the member countries of the regional group, officials said. To prepare the draft agreement, a committee has been formed recently comprising officials from different ministries and representatives from trade bodies. The committee headed by the director general (DG) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Cell under the ministry of commerce (MoC) has been asked to submit its recommendations to the senior secretary of the MoC by February 17, 2017, a high official of the ministry told the FE. “The committee has started working. They will submit their report/recommendations to the senior secretary of the MoC by February 17, 2017,” a high official of the MoC who is involved with the process of preparing the draft agreement on trade facilitation told the FE. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia. The countries are: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The MoC official said Bangladesh is also taking preparation to host the 21st BIMSTEC TNC (Trade Negotiating Committee) meeting to be held in Dhaka in February or March 2017. The meeting will discuss issues of free trade agreement (FTA) and non-tariff measures among the member countries of BIMSTEC and review the decisions taken in the meetings earlier. Besides, it will discuss issues relating to trade and investment and cooperation in energy, agriculture and communication sectors. At present, there is a framework agreement among the BIMSTEC member countries. But there is no agreement among BIMSTEC members on agriculture, trade and investment, tourism, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles and leather sectors etc. Officials from the BIMSTEC countries will attend the three-day meeting. A secretary-level meeting of BIMSTEC countries will take place on the fourth day. The MoC official said Bangladesh has converted HS-Code 2007 to HS-Code 2012 as per the decision taken in the previous meeting of BIMSTEC TNC. On 6 June in 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and named as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar attended the June inaugural meeting as an observer and joined the organisation as a full-member at a special ministerial meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand on 22 December in 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC. Nepal was granted observer status by the second ministerial meeting held in Dhaka in December 1998. Subsequently, full membership was granted to Nepal and Bhutan in February 2004. In the first Summit held on 31 July 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the grouping should be known as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. The BIMSTEC headquarters is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The main objective of BIMSTEC is to bolster technological and economic cooperation among south Asian and southeast Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Besides, commerce, investment, technology, tourism, human resources development, agriculture, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather etc have been included in the objectives of BIMSTEC. Former finance adviser to the caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam told the FE that duty-free market facility, rules of origin and non-tariff measures must be kept in the draft deal in order to protect Bangladesh’s interests.