The two sides signed a 13-page agreed minutes and declared a 'roadmap' for boosting bilateral trade after the talks. But the map lacked any significant work plan.

"We've finalised a roadmap to step forward to eliminate non-tariff barriers and facilitate trade so that more Bangladeshi products can have access to the Indian market," Joint Commerce Secretary and head of the Indian delegation MVPC Shastry told newsmen following the meet.

The meeting deferred revision of the India-Bangladesh Trade Agreement, although all the changes to be made have been finalised. The Indian side said it wants to consult with its higher authorities before finalising the revision, meeting sources said.

On the deferral of the revision, the Indian team leader said all the issues cannot be resolved in a day, as "Rome was not built in a day".

The discussions on removal of non-tariff barriers including the requirements of certification by the Bureau of Indian Standards, quarantine of jute products, mandatory sanitary import permit and labelling did not see much progress.

Bangladeshi exporters face serious problems due to the non-tariff barriers in exporting cement, condensed milk, electrical appliances, dry cell batteries, mineral water, and pharmaceutical, chemical and leather products.

The meeting decided that the issues of relating to pre-shipment inspection and land port facilities would be discussed by the Joint Working Group on Customs in its meeting slated for next month.

Resolving the shippers-consignors debate over the renewal of the India-Bangladesh Trade Agreement has also been delegated to the shipping ministries of the two countries.

However, the Indian side committed to upgrade the Petrapole Land Port against Bangladesh's demand for improving facilities at no less than 10 land ports.

The Indian team also agreed to pursue the State Bank of India to empower its six branches at land ports in the northeastern states to do transactions in foreign exchange in order to enhance bilateral trade. But Bangladesh had demanded more bank branches in the seven northeastern Indian states as well as more autonomy of the branches in decision-making and reduction of the current high letter of credit margin.

The meeting decided that an Indian expert team would visit Dhaka in the second half of October to further inspect four testing laboratories for certification of goods bound for India.

Bangladesh however did not agreed to withdraw ban on import of yarn and sugar through the land ports and the requirement of certification from Khamar Bari for importing poultry products from India.

Dhaka also did not show much enthusiasm or hurry for striking a free trade agreement (FTA) with India. The bile of the Indian side on this issue was apparent when Shastry told reporters, "First you have to decide whether you want to sign an FTA or not."

Joint Commerce Secretary and leader of Bangladesh team Ilias Ahmed said the main difference between the previous and this Joint Working Group meeting was that this time the environment was more cordial and the Indian representatives frankly talked on all the issues.

He said allowing the Bangladeshi testing laboratories to certify export items has been taken as an interim measure. But in the long term we will develop an accreditation council for standard and testing, he added.

The next meeting of the working group takes place in New Delhi next February.