According to the ruling, no land port will be able to import ready-made clothing from Bangladesh. But only through the seaports of Kolkata and Nhava Sheva is it permitted.
India placed port restrictions on a number of Bangladeshi products, such as processed foods and ready-made clothing.
In this context, a notification was released on Saturday by the Commerce Ministry’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). “Port restrictions are imposed on the import of certain goods, including ready-made garments and processed food items, from Bangladesh to India,” the ministry stated in the announcement.
It further stated that Bangladeshi goods traveling through India on their way to Nepal and Bhutan would not be subject to such port restrictions.
According to the ruling, no land port will be able to import ready-made clothing from Bangladesh. But only through the seaports of Kolkata and Nhava Sheva is it permitted. According to the notification, incoming shipments from the neighboring country will not be permitted through any Land Customs Stations (LCSs) or Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, as well as LCS Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal, for the following items: fruits, fruit-flavored and carbonated drinks, processed food items (baked goods, snacks, chips, and confectionary), cotton and cotton yarn waste, plastic and PVC finished goods, dyes, plasticizers and granules, and wooden furniture.
It further said that imports of fish, LPG, edible oil, and crushed stone from Bangladesh are exempt from these port limitations. The country’s import policy has been amended to include a new paragraph that governs the importation of these items from Bangladesh to India “with immediate effect,” according to the statement. The transshipment facility that India had given Bangladesh to export a range of goods to the Middle East, Europe, and other nations—aside from Nepal and Bhutan—was revoked on April 9.
Following a contentious remark made by Muhammad Yunus, the leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, while on a recent trip to China, the announcement was made. The seven northeastern states of India, which border Bangladesh by almost 1,600 kilometers, are landlocked and can only reach the ocean through Bangladesh, according to Yunus. At a business gathering, he also asserted that Bangladesh is the region’s “only guardian” of the Indian Ocean and extended an invitation to China to use Bangladesh as a shipping route for products all over the world.
Indian political leaders from all parties sharply criticized the remarks, which were poorly received in New Delhi. The transshipment facility, which India awarded to Bangladesh in June 2020, ensured seamless trade flows by enabling Bangladesh to export goods to the Middle East, Europe, and other international destinations using a number of Indian ports and airports, notably Delhi airport.
The government had previously pushed to withdraw this privilege from the neighboring countries by Indian exporters, primarily from the garment sector. After Yunus failed to stop attacks on minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh, relationships between India and Bangladesh drastically deteriorated. In the textile industry, Bangladesh is one of India’s main rivals. In 2023–2024, trade between India and Bangladesh totaled USD 12.9 billion.
*With inputs from the agency
