Resumption of Indo-Bangladesh Border Trade: A New Phase of Bi-Lateral Co-Operations

Abstract

Indo–Bangladesh border trade was first initiated in 1972. But ironically it was suspended within six months. Such a suspension order caused great hardships to the rural people living either side of the border who were miserably victimised by the abrupt partition of India in 1947. Considering the urges of several state governments of the north-east India, the Govt. of India placed a new modified proposal of ‘Frontier Traffic’ at New Delhi trade discussion in May 1973 but failed. The attempts to trace the changes since the 1990s when SAPTA and later on SAFTA in compatible with WTO provisions for free-trade regime were introduced by the SAARC.